She stared in disbelief as she heard the announcement that her son Brandon had just lost the most important fight of his career.

``I can't believe it came to this; he trained so hard,'' Mrs. Mitchem said after Fernando Vargas defeated Augusta's Brandon Mitchem 17-14 on Friday night to earn the welterweight spot on the U.S. Olympic Boxing team.

Despite a hometown crowd that cheered and clapped and chanted his every move from the moment he appeared from a tunnel at the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center, Mitchem couldn't defeat this country's top welterweight at the U.S. Olympic Box-offs.

He fell behind in the first round, and despite dominating the final two rounds, couldn't make up the deficit.

Mrs. Mitchem was not alone in her disbelief upon hearing the final score. The pro-Mitchem crowd erupted in boos and shouted its displeasure while Vargas danced around the ring with arms raised high.

``I was pumped up by the crowd. It was great out there,'' Mitchem said. ``The judges didn't see it my way. They got what they wanted. He was the guy who had received all the attention coming into this fight. Maybe they watched him a little more and paid him a little more attention than they paid me. They just kept punching his button.''

``My hometown was behind me, and I gave it all I had,'' he said. ``It was a heckuva fight. I fought the hardest and best that I've ever fought in my life.''

Mitchem will train with the U.S. Olympic team as an alternate to Vargas until the Olympics begin in July. Should anything happen to the 18-year-old from from Oxnard, Calif., Mitchem would fill the 147-pound weight class slot in the Olympics. After that, Mitchem said he'll turn pro.

``I'll be rooting for him, but you never, he might break a hand or sprain an ankle,'' Mitchem said.

Both Mitchem and Tom Moraetes, his coach at the Augusta Boxing Club, felt Mitchem won, especially after his strong third-round performance.

``The first round was close,'' Moraetes said, ``but we took Vargas out of the fight in the second round, and took the fight to him in the third round. Anytime you back up a strength fighter like we did to him in the third round, you're doing something right. I promise that he doesn't want to fight Brandon anytime soon.''

Vargas also had a strong rooting section, but its cheers were drowned out by the Augusta showing.

``All I heard was `Brandon, Brandon, Brandon,'¡'' Vargas said. ``I tried to perk up my ears to hear my group, but I couldn't hear anything but Brandon this and Brandon that.''

Did the crowd have an influence on the final score? Vargas thinks so.

``It wasn't that close,'' he said. ``All his punches were heard, no matter if they landed or not. He could miss a punch and all the judges would here was the crowd shouting and stuff and punch the buttons. I thought I could block all that out, but it was too loud.''

Staff writer Wayne Partridge contributed to this article.