It has been three long years since Oscar De la Hoya controlled the sport of boxing. In late 1999, an undefeated De la Hoya called all the shots. He was welterweight champion, the biggest non-heavyweight draw, and the highest paid athlete in the sport. But a loss to Felix Trinidad had some questioning his heart. A loss to Shane Mosley had some questioning his pound-for-pound status. Set-up opponents like Derrell Coley and Arturo Gatti had some questioning his desire to fight the best. A decision victory over Javier Castillejo had some questioning his power at 154. Surgery on his power hand had some questioning his physical condition. And a 15-month layoff had nearly everyone questioning how much longer De la Hoya intended to fight professionally. So who would have guessed that De la Hoya would storm out against the bigger, stronger Fernando Vargas and turn in the single most impressive victory of his 36-fight career? Fight fans like to see their champions overcome adversity. De la Hoya did just that against Fernando Vargas, who proved himself to be every bit a worthy challenger to De la Hoya's supremacy. As the fighters met at center ring to begin their long-awaited showdown, De la Hoya opened up first, bursting quick punches to Vargas' sides and peppering him with a stiff jab. As Vargas patiently waited for a counter opportunity, De la Hoya's handspeed advantage swept the first half of the round. Pumping his jab equally at Vargas' nose and navel, De la Hoya wasted no time showing why bookmakers had installed him as a -270 betting favorite in a pick 'em fight. But De la Hoya's flashy flurries were not accompanied by his usual floating footwork, and after only 90 seconds of action, Vargas was able to time De la Hoya with a crisp counter right hand. Thirty seconds later, Vargas would back De la Hoya to the ropes with a pair of right hands to the side. Back to the ropes, Oscar ducked a short Vargas hook and his feet slipped out from under him. He fell back between the middle ropes and Vargas pounced. Fernando clipped De la Hoya with two power shots as he tried to untangle himself from the ropes. As the crowd cheered with approval, Vargas kept De la Hoya pinned against the strands and began firing his best shots. At first, De la Hoya assumed a Mayweather-esque pose (right hand over right cheek, left hand at right elbow, left shoulder tucked over chin) and tried to roll with Vargas' shots. But a Vargas hook and then straight right caught De la Hoya flush. Oscar tried to move to his left, but Vargas was on top of him, trapping him now in a corner. Vargas hammered De la Hoya with another straight right and a few shots that only caught Oscar on the arms. As De la Hoya pushed out towards center ring, Vargas punched him back to the ropes with three hard left hooks to the face. Those shots contributed to a large red scrape on De la Hoya's right cheek, a contusion partially blocked by the growling grin De la Hoya flashed at Vargas when the bell sounded. First round to Fernando. De la Hoya met Vargas at center ring to begin the second round and immediately began working the body. Keeping Fernando away with a heavy jab, Oscar was again able to control the pace from a mostly flat-footed stance. Not since his bout with Miguel Angel Gonzalez has De la Hoya's stick been so effective. He routinely touched Vargas' nose with the punch, and on more than one occasion stopped Vargas in place by jabbing to the stomach and then quickly re-jabbing to the mouth. As Oscar continued to touch Vargas with two and three punch flurries, it was clear that De la Hoya's punches (for now, anyway) were nowhere near as powerful and painful as those being thrown by Vargas. This point was emphasized when Vargas again timed De la Hoya with a straight right hand, this time much later in the round. The punch bounced clean off the center of Oscar's forehead and a concerned De la Hoya voluntarily backed up to the ropes after Vargas followed with a loud body shot of his own. But Vargas' offense came too late in the round to make a difference, and Oscar's steady workrate evened the score. And so each fighter's objective became clear: Oscar would try and keep the bout at center ring where he could use angles and occasional movement while Vargas would try and bull De la Hoya to the ropes, where short power shots and a smothering offense could be most effective. Round three started at center ring with De la Hoya again double jabbing downstairs and up with great effect. But another Vargas counter right found its target and again sent De la Hoya into retreat mode. This time, Vargas got in his shot early, and most of the rest of the round saw De la Hoya moving from one set of ropes to another while Vargas pounded his sides, arms and shoulders. De la Hoya's attempts to roll with Vargas' shots worked occasionally, but also left him open for the occasional face shots Vargas began to land in the round. Appearing too wary of Vargas' power to fight his way off the ropes, De la Hoya instead tried merely to survive. The result was a big Vargas round in which Oscar started to look visibly concerned with his inability to hold off his stronger opponent. When a fight comes down to setting the pace, the boxer has the distinct advantage. De la Hoya spent the fourth round reestablishing his jab in the middle of the ring with a frenetic pace and not giving Vargas any chance to counter. The blows began a slight swelling under Vargas' left eye and allowed De la Hoya to again focus on Vargas' body. When Oscar was in this zone, Vargas was neutralized. Although he took De la Hoya's shots with relative ease (again, for now), his return fire was limited to only a few lead hooks. Vargas was fighting a patient fight, but also allowing De la Hoya to get loose with his most effective weapon. Vargas' corner insisted that he needed to be the one setting the pace, and so El Feroz came out in round five and immediately chopped De la Hoya with an overhand right. Vargas followed with another busting right hand, and De la Hoya answered with a flat-footed hook-cross answer. Vargas answered the answer with two more right hands of his own, the second of which bloodied De la Hoya's nose. For a fight that was mostly based on strategy, timing, and sweet science, this brutal exchange stood out in the bout as a reminder that these two guys didn't like each other. Both guys were swinging for the fences with singular power shots... and landing. This was most certainly a fight. De la Hoya seemed instantly distracted by the red moustache he had suddenly grown. As he again retreated until his back touched ropes, he blew blood out of his nose in short bursts and pawed at the mess several times. Vargas came alive at the sight of his rival's blood and again began pounding Oscar on the ropes. For over a minute, De la Hoya again slid along the edge of the ring while Vargas followed him with effective punches. De la Hoya had no answer from this ring position, and Vargas was really letting him have it. In the fifth round, De la Hoya took more clean hooks and crosses to the chin that he had in his fights with Mosley and Trinidad combined. When the round finally ended, a bloody and confused De la Hoya returned to his corner, where even more chaos was underway. Floyd Mayweather, Sr. may have panicked a bit, as Oscar's instructions before round six were frantically screamed while De la Hoya looked like he was seeking more sound advice in his own head. Oscar needed to make adjustments, the first of which was the presence of more determined footwork. De la Hoya continued to jab and hook at Vargas in the sixth round, but he did so mostly while floating away. As a result, his punches lacked steam and his retreat occasionally resembled the stay-away footwork of De la Hoya-Trinidad. Vargas did his best to give chase, but was having a harder time catching up with De la Hoya. At one point, Vargas may have charged in too quickly, as a De la Hoya hook, one of his best so far in the night, opened a small but deep cut under Vargas' right eye. The wound was not in any danger of halting the fight, but it did streak a wide river of blood down Vargas' face in this, and almost every remaining, round. With De la Hoya moving and Vargas chasing, the round was not as action packed as the earlier stanzas. Thus, when the 10-second clacker sounded both men tried to flurry to steal the round. De la Hoya started first with three quick bursts of punches, none of which landed. Then Vargas clocked De la Hoya with a massive hook, followed a missed-right later by another short hook to the chin. Both punches rattled De la Hoya, who answered with a wicked right cross that was thrown as the bell was sounding and landed after Vargas had already dropped his hands. Easily the toughest round to score, we favored Vargas by the slimmest of margins. As the second half of the bout began, fans started scanning the fighters for fatigue. And while De la Hoya was the one who came into the ring with a reputation for fading down the stretch, it seemed that it was Vargas who had lost a half-step in the speed department. De la Hoya opened round seven by again moving, but punching at Vargas with more determination. As Vargas diligently pursued, De la Hoya continued to jab to the head, pound the body, and give Vargas angles. At mid-round, Oscar cracked into Vargas with a solid hook. The punch stopped Vargas in his tracks. Oscar waited a beat, then fired a massive lead right hand. Oscar has used his right with surprising effectiveness in a few recent bouts, but now he was really turning the punch over and hurting Vargas with it. After another beat, Oscar timed another single lead right, again smacking Vargas hard on the jawline and drawing a huge pop from the crowd. Whether through confidence or a bit of exhaustion of his own (De la Hoya had been maintaining a blistering pace for most of the night), De la Hoya ended the round by fighting Vargas with both hands down at his waist. Vargas tried to capitalize, but seemed too thrown off by De la Hoya's heavy right hands. While he tried to figure out an answer to Oscar's adjustment, he rarely threw a punch. De la Hoya, who had claimed before the bout that he was once and for all a "two-handed fighter," wasted no time in round eight testing out Vargas' ability to avoid the right hand. He couldn't. De la Hoya ripped Fernando with two more heavy rights early in round eight, and the effect was yet more Vargas waiting. It was now Vargas' turn to be the one shuffling left and right. You could see Vargas' frustration and feel his confusion as his aggressive gameplan yielded to a more cautious approach. With De la Hoya temporarily freed from the pressure of coping with a stronger opponent who comes forward, he again set a busy pace, busting Vargas with the jab, body shots and an occasional uppercut. Just before the bell, De la Hoya capped off a dominant round by crushing Vargas with a loud one-two, perhaps the single most effective right hand De la Hoya has ever thrown in the ring. With the fight still too close to call, but starting to shift towards De la Hoya, Vargas needed to rally. Focusing on De la Hoya's right side, Vargas began throwing low right hands at Oscar's ribs. After a few such shots, De la Hoya's hands again began swinging low. After a few more, De la Hoya again found himself retreating to the ropes, the one place he did not want to be. Vargas crossed De la Hoya's chin with a couple of beautiful right hands early in the round, but he was not as fresh as he had been in the first part of the fight. While Vargas still maintained the advantage with De la Hoya trapped in corners, Vargas' punches were starting to look slower and come less frequently. Still, his efforts in round nine were more than enough bank him a round and keep his chances alive. Vargas felt he had finally solved the problem of De la Hoya's right by digging his own right to the body, and in round ten he continued to dig to the ribs. While Oscar continued to add minor swelling to Vargas' face with the jab, Vargas was starting to answer with jabs of his own. Both men were landing punches, but Vargas caught a brief second wind and began to show more signs of life as the round wore on. For his part, De la Hoya was now picking his spots more carefully. Sometimes he would throw a flurry quickly, other times he would commit harder to a smaller combination. His harder shots were landing clean, but Vargas was still being the more effective fighter in the round overall. As the ten-second clapper sounded, Vargas looked like he had banked another important round at a time when the fight was up for grabs. But with five seconds left to go, De la Hoya threw three short punches to the ribs and ended the combination with an upstairs hook. The punch landed right on the base of Vargas' jaw. Vargas took a quarter step back and began doing the noodle dance: that incontrollable full-body shake that comes only when your central nervous system is temporarily on the fritz. The crowd erupted with a deafening cheer, but De la Hoya could not land a follow-up shot before the bell sounded. The punch not only flipped a Vargas round to De la Hoya's column, but changed the entire course of the evening. Vargas appeared to be rallying, but now he sat slumped in his corner, blinking feverishly as his seconds dumped ice water over his head. As the eleventh round began, it was up to Oscar to see what Vargas had left in the tank. But De la Hoya started tentatively, perhaps with good reason. Vargas did not look wobbly as the round started, and he came at De la Hoya with his hands closely guarding his face. Oscar spent most of the first 90 seconds of the round jabbing carefully. Then, only seconds after the fight went long enough to pay the over, De la Hoya swung his trademark half-hook/half-uppercut. The punch swiped the front of Vargas' face. A half-second later, De la Hoya launched another massive hook, this one from a more conventional angle. The bomb was a bull's-eye, landing flush on the side of Vargas' head. He may not have even seen it coming. The punch lifted Vargas off his feet. He flew backwards, his entire body floating above the canvas before he landed on his tailbone and smacked the back of his head on the floor. As he has in the Trinidad fight, Vargas popped up immediately. But he was so shaken that even the fans could see the stars he was dancing around his head. Joe Cortez completed a mandatory eight count and then allowed De la Hoya to finish the show. Oscar ran at Vargas, who had barely stepped out of a neutral corner, and fired off a six-punch combination. Maybe Vargas has some senses left, or maybe his floppy body was just lucky... but De la Hoya missed all six punches. Luckily, Vargas was doing little more than trying to slip and cover up. De la Hoya took a half-step back, took a deep breath, and then fired at Vargas again. This time he found his target, pushing Vargas across the ropes with the force of his blows and then trapping him in another corner. De la Hoya knew Vargas was hurt and knew just how to end the fight. Holding out his left arm straight, De la Hoya took two seconds to perfectly measure Vargas, then let his hands go in a blinding, but random, flurry. A few early blows snapped Vargas' head back, and then to the left. Cortez moved closer. Vargas covered up and De la Hoya simply unloaded a dozen unanswered punches to the front of his gloves. Cortez had no choice but to step in and halt the action. Vargas was not returning fire, was barely covering up, and was starting to slump into the ropes. It was a good call. De la Hoya KO11. There was no protest from Vargas, who seemed completely dazed. A relieved De la Hoya circled to center ring, spit out his mouthpiece and then slowly raised his arms with complete satisfaction. He had just knocked out the cocky young upstart who for over five years had taunted him both in private and public. It was probably his best win as a pro. After the fight, De la Hoya (now 35-2/27) could not contain his broad smile. Now the WBA and WBC champion, Oscar did a lot to erase his image as a cautious, powerless-at-154, questionably conditioned, ABC titlist. He is now not only the man at 154, but he is finally a legit champion in four weight classes (we didn't count the win over Castillejo as a real junior middle title and we still don't count the WBO title he won at 130). This time, when he called out for rematches with Mosley and Trinidad, he did so with the confidence of a man who thinks he can win, not a man who feels he must because he has few other options. Nearly three years removed from his fall from grace against Trinidad, De la Hoya has, with this gritty performance, once again risen to the top of the sport. While he still may not fight on much longer, his future plans are now vastly more relevant. De la Hoya has some big fights ahead of him... and after this amazing performance, they may prove to be his biggest fights yet. Vargas (now 22-2/20) was unavailable for reaction after the bout... he was wisely rushed to a hospital. We're not sure if he was ambulanced away because he needed medical treatment (Vargas sustained a beating almost as bad as the one Tito gave him) or because he needed to be put on suicide watch. Having invested so much time and emotion into this bout, it will be most difficult for this young fighter to swallow losing to man he so genuinely despised. Still, his career is far from over. Vargas fought valiantly. At times in the early rounds, he fought far above expectations. He will be back. The fans love warriors of Vargas' ilk. There will always be butts in the seats when he fights. But this was Oscar's night. Past victories haven't always been. After most of his welterweight showdowns, even the ones he won, Oscar often left much to be desired. This night was a different story. This was Oscar's night to shine. .....Chris Bushnell (Please send comments to us at: BoxingChronicle@aol.com)