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Columnist Dean Juipe on Boxing: Quartey Should Win against Vargas

In recent years Ike Quartey has only occasionally resurfaced, showing up once a year for a major fight and then returning to the shadows.

While only 29 years old, he has fought just three times in the last three years and not since losing a split decision to Oscar De La Hoya 13 months ago.

Either well rested or rusting, Quartey returns to the ring April 15 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center when he takes on 22-year-old Fernando Vargas in what figures to be a very competitive fight with the latter's International Boxing Federation junior middleweight title on the line.

Quartey, speaking Wednesday on a conference call from his training camp in Pensacola, Fla., said his inactivity shouldn't be misconstrued.

"I only want the best fights but no one will fight me," he said. "I want nothing but the best, but the right fights weren't there."

His manager, Godwin Asifo, expressed a similar refrain.

"We were available and prepared to do battle, but circumstances always prevented it," he said. "It's nothing of our doing."

Predictably, neither man feels Quartey will be negatively impacted by his long layoff.

"I don't think it will affect me," Quartey said. "I've prepared for a long time for this fight. I have more power."

This will be his first fight at 154 pounds after spending the bulk of his 12-year career at 147. But he has picked a tough opponent to break in against at the new weight, as Vargas is 18-0 with 17 knockouts.

Quartey is 34-1-1 with 29 KOs as he comes into a fight dubbed "Two Warriors -- One War" that allegedly is close to selling out the 11,000-seat arena.

"I will punch it out with Vargas," he said. "It's supposed to be a war. He's the IBF champion, so it has to be a good fight."

When last seen in Las Vegas, Quartey was giving De La Hoya all he could handle in a Feb. 13, 1999, fight at the Thomas & Mack Center. Recalled for its excellent sixth round in which both men were down, the fight hinged on the judges' verdict and two of them sided with De La Hoya by scores of 116-112 and 116-113, with the third judge having Quartey ahead 115-114.

While the judges have not yet been picked for Quartey vs. Vargas, Asifo went so far as to admit he's leery.

"We've been concerned about the officiating, especially in Las Vegas," he said. Asked specifically whether he felt the judges for the De La Hoya fight were inept or corrupt, Asifo said it was "a combination of both" without elaborating.

But the judges won't be a factor if either man follows through on his prediction. Vargas, who is training in Big Bear, Calif., has spoken of a fifth-round knockout victory, while Quartey promised a KO of his own.

"OK, we'll see what happens," Quartey said with a chuckle when informed of Vargas' forecast. "He's going to sleep, trust me."

Admitting that his disputed loss to De La Hoya "affected me a lot," Quartey withdrew from circulation and purchased a hotel in his native Ghana. After signing to fight Vargas he opened camp in Pensacola and has been sparring with Sam Garr and Alex Bunema.

"There's a tranquility in Pensacola," Asifo said. "We've been going there for four years and there are no distractions."

Quartey will move his camp to Las Vegas around April 1.

Vargas, who has been sparring with Jonathan Reid, Michael Covington and Verno Phillips, is coming off a Dec. 4 fight with Winky Wright that failed to impress his upcoming opponent.

"That was a tough fight in his career," said Quartey, who was ringside for the bout. "I think my experience will be the difference. He hasn't fought anybody like me and that will help me a lot."

Asifo offered that Wright "outclassed (Vargas) in many respects" and that Quartey's experience "will be a big advantage."

Yet Quartey has been hindered by fights falling through and it's only in recent years that he has upped the caliber of his competition. For instance, prospective bouts with Pernell Whitaker and Felix Trinidad were voided in 1998 and Quartey -- who won the World Boxing Association welterweight title in 1994 by beating Crisanto Espana -- spent much of his career facing substandard opposition.

But this is a big fight ahead, one that Main Events promoter Gary Shaw is calling the "probable fight of the year."

Asifo certainly knows what is at stake.

"There's not much for us to prove and there's a lot to prove at the same time," he said. "It would make a powerful statement to win."

* TOUGH LOSS: Taking an 18-0 record into a scheduled 10-round fight with J.C. Candela last Friday in Denver, Las Vegas resident Gary Jones anticipated winning and furthering his career. And he was following that plan until getting caught with a right hand at the end of the ninth round and being counted out.

"I saw the judges' cards and he was winning without any problem," Jones' trainer, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, said this week. "But he got hit with a sudden punch and he couldn't recover."

Jones, a junior middleweight who is managed by Sugar Ray Leonard, is only 21 years old and may be able to put this loss behind him.

"I'm not giving up on the kid," Muhammad said. "He expended a lot of energy taking the fight to Candela, and I think the altitude started killing him. He got tired, and part of that is due to inexperience.

"In my opinion the loss might help make him stronger and more determined. He's already anxious to get back in the gym and we're going to work even harder."

* QUICK HITS: Heavyweight Lawrence Clay-Bey, who had been scheduled to face Chris Byrd April 1 at the Regent Las Vegas, had the retina in his left eye re-attached over the weekend at a hospital in Hartford, Conn. Doctors determined that a similar procedure for his right eye was unnecessary. Clay-Bey, a 1996 U.S. Olympian, hopes to resume his career later this year but has been replaced by Adolpho Washington for the April 1 fight. ... Mike Tyson's fight with Lou Savarese is officially on for May 20 in Milan, Italy, the Showtime cable network has announced.

Top Rank reported Wednesday that first-day sales of tickets to the June 17 fight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles between Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley totalled $1.5 million in the opening hour, and that all 5,500 upper-deck tickets have been sold. ... Promoter Don King is trying to get the WBA to strip Lennox Lewis of its portion of his undisputed heavyweight title, although a hearing in New York seems to be going against him. King has Evander Holyfield vs. John Ruiz scheduled for June 3 at Caesars Palace and, naturally, would like that fight to be for the vacant title. Early indications are that the court will rule against the motion, leaving King with a difficult sell.

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