Fernando Vargas made no excuses for losing to Oscar De La Hoya. He also offered no explanation why he dislikes him so much.

Five days after he was stopped by Oscar De La Hoya in their 154-pound grudge match, a subdued Vargas offered congratulations to his rival and said he thought he was winning the fight until he got caught by a vicious left hook at the end of the 10th round.

"I never recovered from that punch,'' Vargas said Thursday. "That's boxing. One shot can turn around the whole fight. I got caught, and more power to him that he was able to catch me with it.''

In his first public comments since the fight, though, Vargas backed off a pre-fight promise to reveal just what has driven his hatred of De La Hoya over the years. He said he would reveal it to De La Hoya, and not the media.

"After the next fight,'' Vargas said before abruptly ending a press conference at a hotel next to Los Angeles International Airport.

Vargas isn't likely to get a rematch with De La Hoya in the near future, though the two of them engaged in one of the more entertaining fights in recent times. De La Hoya, who added the WBA title to his WBC title, has said he wants to avenge losses to Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad in his next fights.

Vargas said he was disappointed with losing the fight, but proud of the effort he gave before De La Hoya knocked him down and then stopped him with a flurry of punches at 1:48 of the 11th round Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Vargas was behind on two of three scorecards at the time, but said he thought he was controlling the fight.

"I thought I was executing my game plan and taking the fight to him,'' he said. "I was putting a lot of pressure on him and he was taking a lot of hard shots.''

Vargas had won the ninth round and was competitive in the 10th when De La Hoya caught him with a left hook seconds before the end of the round. His knees buckled and he made it back to the corner, but never recovered.

Early in the 11th round, another De La Hoya left hook sent Vargas to the canvas, and he followed it with a flurry of punches that prompted referee Joe Cortez to stop the fight.

"I didn't see the shot coming and that's the one that usually causes the most damage,'' Vargas said.

It was the second knockout loss to Vargas, who was also stopped by Felix Trinidad in their December 2000 fight. But Vargas said he felt fine, despite having a fractured right eye socket and having to take antibiotics for a cut under his eye.

He said he was proud he gave it his all and heartened by the response of fans who liked the fact he never backed down.

"I will be back and I look forward to being a world champion again,'' Vargas said. "I feel I've got what it takes to be that.''

Vargas said his immediate plans were to take the mother of his two children to Hawaii for a vacation, then look to return to the gym.

Main Events promoter Kathy Duva said Vargas will likely fight in February or March next year.

HBO said Thursday the fight was bought by 900,000 customers, making it the second biggest non-heavyweight pay-per-view event ever. The pay-per-view gross was $45.6 million, meaning Vargas will likely make far more than the $6 million he was guaranteed for the bout.

"We believe what we have now is a bankable, totally credible box office attraction in Fernando Vargas,'' Duva said.