Fight to Stay in New York

The Felix Trinidad-Bernard Hopkins fight for the undisputed middleweight championship has been rescheduled for Sept. 29 and will remain at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The date became available when the World Championships of Wrestling--an amateur event featuring almost 700 athletes from 82 nations--were postponed, partly because of security concerns for international athletes, among them natives of Middle Eastern countries and ethnic Muslims.

Promoter Don King said he is following the lead of President Bush and other leaders by rescheduling the fight quickly--not coincidentally while the boxers are still in peak form--”to bring New Yorkers together to show that Americans will continue to stand proud with unity, solidarity and togetherness.”

The Trinidad-Hopkins bout, originally scheduled for last Saturday, won’t be the first significant fight in the wake of the terrorist attacks.

That will be held Saturday at the Mandalay Events Center in Las Vegas when Fernando Vargas--still trying to reestablish himself after taking a beating from Trinidad in December--fights former sparring partner Jose “Shibata” Flores for the vacant World Boxing Assn. junior-middleweight title.

Vargas (21-1) lost the International Boxing Federation junior-middleweight title to Trinidad in a devastating 12th-round knockout.

Then he looked shaky in his next fight when he defeated Wilfredo Rivera in May but suffered a second-round knockdown before recovering.

At a news conference Wednesday at a hotel near LAX, Vargas blamed poor training for his unimpressive showing against Rivera and stripped off his shirt, declaring himself in the best shape of his life.

“I know Shibata was thinking I was going to be my old me,” Vargas said. “After fights, I’d stay out of the gym, not do nothing, get fat.

“This time, two days after the fight, I was in the gym. I said to myself, ‘Why did I feel slow? Why was I slow on my feet?’

“Well, I had to lose 10 pounds the week of the fight. Right now, I’ve been at my weight for a week.”

The mild-mannered Flores (42-8) said he thinks Vargas, a fighter he considers a friend, is “more mature” after his last two fights.

Vargas more or less agrees.

“There is a saying in Spanish ... ‘Confidence kills a man,”’ he said. “I think I’m in better shape now than when I fought Trinidad. ... “I want to go get what’s mine, take care of business and shut people up.”

Vargas, from Oxnard, also announced he will wear an American flag on his trunks Saturday, along with a Mexican emblem.