Boxing champion Fernando Vargas of Oxnard probably will spend next year fighting everywhere but home.

Something about Fernando Vargas and his desire to stick close to home doesn’t make sense.

Vargas is spending the holiday season relaxing in Oxnard, savoring the seventh-round technical knockout over Yory Boy Campas two weeks ago that earned him the International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight title.

Be it ever so humble . . .

“This is nice,” Vargas said. “Taking a few weeks off, relaxing with family. This is where I want to be. I’m a West Coast fighter.”

But soon, “Ferocious Fernando,” anything but humble, will be back on the road, back on the knockout trail.

You can never go home again, the saying goes. That goes double for a professional boxer--unless he is from Las Vegas.

That’s where Vargas, 21, undefeated in 15 bouts and a budding star according to boxing pundits, figures to be throwing most of his punches in the future.

Fewer than two years removed from his pro debut at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, Vargas increasingly is being mentioned in the same sentence with World Boxing Council welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya and “payday.”

Talk of a possible matchup between the two former U.S. Olympians continues to swirl with each Vargas victory. The fighters have exchanged less-than-complimentary remarks--most of them by Vargas.

“If [De La Hoya] wants to step up and try and win another championship, I wouldn’t mind it,” Vargas said. “There’s mine. If he wants to try and take it, I’m ready.”

Just don’t expect to see it happen in Oxnard. Or anywhere in California.

Vargas likely will spend 1999 far from home, and fewer of his fights figure to be on the West Coast.

Vargas, who signed a lucrative contract with Main Events immediately following his appearance in the 1996 Olympic Games, persuaded promoter Dino Duva to schedule his first fight in front of his hometown fans.

It went over with a bang, with Vargas knocking out his opponent in 56 seconds, to the delight of a packed house.

Vargas craves an encore performance. But his marketability makes it unlikely.

His first title defense is tentatively scheduled for the undercard of the March 13 heavyweight title fight between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis at Madison Square Garden in New York. An opponent is to be determined.

A fight in Southern California in 1999 is a possibility.

“Dino would like to do something like that,” Main Events spokesman Donald Tremblay said. “But it would be after March.”

As a showdown with De La Hoya grows nearer, the memory of Vargas fighting at home fades.

“Right now, I just want to be the best in the world,” Vargas said. “The way I do that is to go after the best guys in my division.”

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9 FOR 99: Expect these people from the region to make a major impact on sports. One in a series.

Today: Fernando Vargas, professional boxer

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Marcus Brady, Cal State Northridge quarterback

Gabe Kaper, Minor league player of the year for Tigers organization

QB Heir, Incoming Hart High quarterback

Ednishaa Curry, Cla State Northridge women’s basketball guard

Jaamal Anderson, Atlanta Falcons running back

Arthur Lee, North Holloywod High, Stanford basketball point guard

Dan Goossen, promoter Mike Tyson

Blenda Wilson, Cal State Northridge president.