Ferocious Fernando Welcomes his Fans to “Casa Los Vargas”

Fernando Vargas is a name recognized by fight fans throughout the world. The “Ferocious”, as he was known during his boxing career, was a two time world champion, and was in the ring with some of the best fighters of his era. Names such as Winky Wright, Ike Quartey, Oscar De La Hoya, Tito Trinidad and Ricardo Mayorga can be found on his impressive resume. Whether he was coming away with a win, or found himself on the losing side of a ring battle, boxing fans always knew they were in for a great fight once Vargas stepped into the ring.

Almost seven years since his last bout, Vargas once again finds himself in the limelight, this time starring alongside his family in his own reality TV show “Welcome to Los Vargas”. The show follows the lives of the ex champion, his wife Martha, their four dynamic children, Fernando Jr., Amado, Emiliano, Mibella “China,” and Martha’s loving father, Alfredo. The weekly one hour program, shown on Mun2 Sundays at 9 p.m. PST/8 p.m. CST, centers on Fernando and Martha’s over 20 year love story, one that flourished in and out of the ring and produced four charming kids.

For Vargas the program was a great platform to show fans his life outside the ring, and share with them his fun loving family. “With this show I am happy because I get to share with my fans what happens behind the closed doors and how great my family is,” Vargas would tell us during a phone interview. “I fell in love with them because they’re my family, but I know the fans will fall in love with them too. “

Mothers can be overly protective of their families, especially Latina ones. It is therefore not surprising, that Martha had some initial hesitation about doing the show, however after discussing it with the family she was on board. “We discussed everything as a family, with open communication. I was the one that didn’t want to do this, I protect my family, but we came to the decision together as a group. “

Martha believes that having Fernando for a dad helped the kids feel at ease in front of the cameras. Over the years Fernando has given numerous interviews, some of which the kids were present for and got used to seeing. “I feel that having a dad who is an athlete and being around him doing interviews helped the kids feel comfortable, they weren’t afraid of it. Also being in their home, that’s their comfort zone; I think that’s why the show is able to capture their originality.”

For his part, Fernando was not at all surprised by how well his kids have taken to the cameras. It was his opinion, even before filming the show, that his family was a natural for the TV screen. “Honestly I just expected them to act the way they act because for years people were telling me, man you’re family needs to be on TV, you’re kids are so funny. The kids need to be on TV, and your whole family needs to be on. You and your wife have been through so much and you’re still in love with each other after so many years, you can give people hope and aspiration. And I’m glad we were able to connect with this great network Mun2 and my kids can do what they always do for everyone to see.”

And while Fernando is pleased with how well the show has turned out, he still wants to be in involved in boxing, the sport that helped keep him off the streets and brought him so much success. “I want to continue training fighters and continue helping them become world champions. I helped Hector Munoz beat Hector Camacho jr, with two weeks of training and I want to continue doing that because I love it. So my wife handles the administration and I just handle the training.”

New episodes of “Welcome to Los Vargas” can be seen Sundays at 9 p.m. PST/8 p.m. CST, on mun2. Also, episodes of “Welcome to Los Vargas” are available on www.mun2.tv/vargas 24 hours after they’ve aired on air. You can also follow Fernando and Martha on twitter @_fernandovargas, @thaqueenmv