U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : LOS ANGELES 1991 : His Gold Is Free of Tarnish : Boxing: The size of De La Hoya’s 44-15 computer-scored victory over Brooks is the only question about result.

Oscar de la Hoya, one month out of East Los Angeles’ Garfield High, won an Olympic Festival boxing championship Tuesday night at the Forum, and by a computer score wider than many thought he had earned.

De la Hoya, 18, scored a 44-15 victory over Patrice Brooks of St. Louis, a margin that to many in the Forum crowd of about 4,000 seemed a bit too wide.

Nonetheless, De la Hoya, unbeaten since 1987, advanced to amateur boxing’s world championships in Sydney, Australia, and from there, he hopes, to next summer’s Olympic Games.

He joined 11 other champions crowned Tuesday on the plane to Australia, most notably two-time world champion light-flyweight Eric Griffin and light-middleweight Raul Marquez.

De la Hoya-Brooks was a fast-paced matchup of 132-pounders, with De la Hoya consistently landing quick, short right hands on the left-handed Brooks. Both boxers lost three points off their scores in the third round, the result of referee Marco Sarfaraz calling holding violations for the third time on each.

De la Hoya, boxing in a major amateur event for the first time in Los Angeles, seemed to tire in the third and final round.

“I got tired, we both threw a lot of punches,” he said.

“I did think it (the electronic score) would be a little closer, though. I felt a lot of pressure, fighting before my friends for the first time. People expected me to win big.

“I got the right hand in because I worked hard on it in training. Patrice is left-handed, so I worked at putting my lead left foot over his right foot to get the right in. It worked.”

Brooks quibbled with the score, not the result.

“I didn’t think he won by that wide a margin,” Brooks said. “It was close, it wasn’t 44-15. And the two standing-eights were unnecessary. Oscar is quite a fighter, very smart. He took me out of my game plan--I wanted to box him, but he made me fight him.

“The best part of his game is his body shots. He got tired, but I couldn’t get to him.”

De la Hoya established a tone for the bout when he landed short, quick rights twice within in the bout’s first 15 seconds. By late in the second, De la Hoya had landed the right so often that Brooks began ducking from De la Hoya’s feints.

De la Hoya was bothered briefly in the third by his ill-fitting headgear but could see well enough to land a solid left-right combination, hard enough that Sarfaraz gave Brooks a standing eight count. There was a second standing eight count on Brooks in the round before Sarfaraz called holding warnings on first De la Hoya, then Brooks.

In March, De la Hoya won a decision over Brooks in the championship bout of the nationals.

The 5-foot-3 Griffin might box in amateur boxing’s lightest weight class (106 pounds), but he is America’s most decorated amateur boxer. In qualifying Tuesday for the November world championships in Sydney, Griffin, 23, positioned himself to win a third world title.

His margin over Martinez was 53-19, a spread Martinez questioned.

“He hit me with good, clean shots, but I didn’t think he won by that much,” said Martinez, a soldier who loaded M1 tanks in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm.

Griffin is 3-0 against Martinez. Twice during their bout, referee Sarfaraz gave Martinez standing eight counts.

Griffin won a world title at the Moscow world championships in 1989 by beating his Cuban rival, Rogelio Marcelo. Then he beat Marcelo again last year in the world championship challenge matches, with his world title at stake.

Along the way, Griffin, who lives in Broussard, La., has won two national Golden Gloves championships and a national championship.

Marquez is a powerful, hard-hitting light-middleweight (156 pounds) from Houston who hasn’t lost to an American since 1989. He scored a 23-17 victory over Ravea Springs of Cincinnati on Tuesday, a verdict booed by some.

He chased the retreating Springs for three rounds, landed often with audible scoring blows to the body and head, but Springs was able to counter.

In a rousing heavyweight final, easily the best bout of the tournament, John Bray of Van Nuys stopped Melvin Foster of Washington in the third round. Bray, twice on the verge of being stopped himself, caught Foster on the ropes late in the bout and referee Gene Reese stopped it.

Other winners:

--National champion flyweight Tim Austin of Cincinnati knocked down John Herrera of Corpus Christi, Tex., twice and stopped him in the third round on a disqualification for holding.

--Sean Fletcher, who loaded bombs on aircraft while serving on the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt during the Persian Gulf War, won the bantamweight title, 37-28, over Aristead Clayton of Baker, La.

--Ivan Robinson, 20, of Philadelphia scored a 26-4 victory over the Festival’s oldest boxer, Ken Friday, 29, of Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.

--Therronn Millett of St. Louis won the light-welterweight title, 20-11, over Steve Johnston of Colorado Springs.

--At welterweight, Ross Thompson of Miami was a 32-15 winner over Patrick Byrd of Flint, Mich.

--Middleweight Chris Byrd defeated Michael DeMoss of Camp Lejeune, N.C., 21-15.

--Larry Donald of Cincinnati won the super-heavyweight championship, 12-8, over Samson Pouha of Kearns, Utah.

The USA Amateur Boxing Federation announced that its 1992 Olympic trials tournament will be held at Worcester, Mass., June 10-14 and that the Olympic team boxoff will be at Phoenix June 27-28.

Eight top boxers in each of the 12 weight classes will compete in the trials.