Ugly Victory Gives De La Hoya a Shot at Evening a Score : Boxing: He advances to the 132-pound final against nemesis Rudolph. Byrd wins easily at 165 pounds.

It wasn’t pretty and he was staggering at the finish, but Oscar De La Hoya qualified for a gold-medal bout in Olympic boxing with another narrow victory Thursday.

The East Los Angeles lightweight pulled out an 11-10 decision over a wrestler-boxer from South Korea, Hong Sung Sik. Many De La Hoya partisans feared he had lost in the final seconds on a referee’s warning for ducking too low.

But in the end, De La Hoya qualified for a gold-medal match Saturday against Germany’s Marco Rudolph, the last boxer to defeat the Garfield High graduate.

Middleweight Chris Byrd also made it to a gold-medal bout, easily beating Canadian Chris Johnson, 17-3. Byrd will fight fleet, hard-hitting Cuban Ariel Hernandez on Saturday.

Today, flyweight Tim Austin of Cincinnati, the only other American left in the two-week tournament, will meet Cuba’s Raul Gonzalez in a semifinal in hopes of joining De La Hoya and Byrd in the gold-medal round.

De La Hoya, before a near-capacity crowd of 2,500 at Joventut Pavilion, did not box well against the South Korean, later blaming his opponent’s wrestling tactics. His father, Joel De La Hoya, probably didn’t buy that.

“He did not box well, and I don’t know why. I want to have a talk with Oscar,” he said heatedly.

As the final seconds ticked off, it seemed one of four things was about to happen:

--Hong would be disqualified at any time.

--A ducking-too-low warning given to De La Hoya by Yugoslav referee Streten Yabucanin with eight seconds left would give Hong three points in what was obviously a close bout and would cost De La Hoya the fight.

--Hong would win a decision.

--De La Hoya would win a decision.

The last option prevailed, and De La Hoya’s cheering section slumped in relief.

De La Hoya never seemed to be in the match. The left jab that had worked so well was gone. So was his right hand. De La Hoya’s soft, aimless rights made him look like a slow-pitch softball pitcher.

He also tripped over his feet several times, was wearing ill-fitting headgear and at no time was in command.

Hong, when he wasn’t wrestling De La Hoya inside and holding his head down, landed enough short, chopping punches to be well ahead on points.

But the South Korean was cautioned twice for holding De La Hoya’s head down with his left forearm, and on the third infraction drew the mandatory warning, with 1:29 to go in the second round, which gave De La Hoya three points.

That put De La Hoya ahead, 8-4, after the second, a surprising score because the judges had not credited Hong for a single blow in the round.

But De La Hoya wasn’t the only man in the ring having a bad bout. Yabucanin, the referee, was struggling. In the third, he gave Hong two more warnings for holding De La Hoya’s neck.

Amateur boxing rules call for a maximum of three warnings--after two cautions--for the same foul. On a third warning, the fighter is supposed to be disqualified.

Yabucanin not only didn’t disqualify Hong, he also failed to award De La Hoya any more points.

De La Hoya called the bout a nightmare.

“I knew it would be a wrestling match,” he said. “I’d watched him earlier.

“I know how to box a guy who’s in there to box, but I don’t know how to box a wrestler. Based just on his boxing, the guy was no better than a J.O. (Junior Olympics) boxer. My performance was terrible. I feel kind of bad, because I enjoy impressing people.

“But it was his fault, not mine. And one bad performance isn’t going to hurt me.

“It was a terrible experience, a nightmare.

“A couple of times the ref yelled ‘Stop!’ and the guy hit me.”

Said U.S. Coach Joe Byrd: “I told Oscar to use straight right hands with the guy, but when he comes flying at you and tackles you, what are you going to do? I was afraid he might break Oscar’s neck.

“You can’t hold a man’s head down, then hit him. The referee let the bout get out of hand. He should have disqualified the kid in the first round.”

De La Hoya seemed to run out of steam late in the bout.

“Yes, I got tired of wrestling him,” he said.

Unlike De La Hoya, Chris Byrd, son of the coach, sailed into the final without even a close call.

He won here by scores of 21-3, 16-7, 21-2 before Thursday’s decision, and if he upsets Hernandez for the gold medal will be in the running for the award given the outstanding boxer.

Byrd turned a hard puncher into a punching bag. And he did it in the style his father detests--counterpunching from the ropes and holding his hands down.

His most effective counters were down-the-middle short punches, with either hand, that slipped between Johnson’s gloves.

Byrd said he might make his father happy Saturday.

“I might box (Hernandez) more in the middle of the ring and make him come to me,” he said. “This is the best I’ve ever boxed in my life. I just feel great. I feel like it’s my turn.

“I love to counter guys. I love to make them miss, then counter them . . . and start to see frustration in their eyes. Then the next thing I see in their eyes is that they’re giving up.”

Cuba raised its tournament record to 35-3 in Thursday’s semifinals and sent five boxers into gold-medal bouts. The United States is 20-9.

Saturday’s gold-medal matchups, as decided Thursday:

106 pounds--Rogelio Marcelo (Cuba) vs. Daniel Bojinov (Bulgaria).

119--Wayne McCullough (Ireland) vs. Joel Casamayor (Cuba).

132--Oscar De La Hoya (East Los Angeles) vs. Marco Rudolph (Germany).

147--Michael Carruth (Ireland) vs. Juan Hernandez (Cuba).

165--Chris Byrd (Flint, Mich.) vs. Ariel Hernandez (Cuba).

201--David Izonritei (Nigeria) vs. Felix Savon (Cuba).

Boxing Notes

Felix Savon’s 23-3 romp over the Netherlands’ 6-foot-7 Arnold VanDerLijde makes Savon, the Cuban world amateur champion, a solid choice over Nigeria’s David Izonritei for the gold medal. The bronze medal was VanDerLijde’s third. . . . Many are picking the Bulgarian light-flyweight, Daniel Bojinov, over Cuba’s Rogelio Marcelo. Bojinov is tall and long-armed for a light-flyweight, quick and strong, and, like Chris Byrd, hasn’t had a close bout yet.

Ireland, much to the delight of a vocal, flag-waving cheering section, can win gold medals with bantamweight Wayne McCullough and welterweight Michael Carruth. But both must beat Cubans. Ireland has won seven boxing medals in the Olympics but never a gold. . . . If the United States goes zero for three in the gold-medal round, it will mark the first time since 1948 that Americans have failed to win at least one boxing gold. In any case, the United States will have only three medalists, the fewest since 1956.

Raul Marquez, the eliminated U.S. light-middleweight from Houston and Oscar De La Hoya’s closest friend on the Olympic team, on De La Hoya’s performance Thursday: “I don’t know what was wrong with him. The guy was holding him a lot, but Oscar wasn’t throwing any good punches. Those right hands had nothing on them.” . . . De La Hoya on his rematch with Marco Rudolph, who defeated him, 17-13, in the World Championships in Sydney last November: “I’ll try to land a lot of punches on him and get out of the way, because he likes to hold on when he misses or when you hit him.”