BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : De La Hoya’s Road Paved With Gold

Remember last summer?

Remember the smiling kid from East Los Angeles, the one in the T-shirts and jeans, who won the only United States gold medal in boxing at the Barcelona Olympics?

Oscar De La Hoya’s summer of ’92 seems like a long time ago, when you look today at where he is and where he’s going.

Where he is today is in the chips. Before he has fought a single 10-round fight, he has already earned more than $1 million.

De La Hoya, 20, recently signed endorsement deals with MCI, B.U.M. sportswear and Champion. “B.U.M. will introduce an Oscar De La Hoya clothing line soon, and Oscar will shoot a commercial for them,” said De La Hoya’s co-manager, Steve Nelson. “It’s a great deal for Oscar. It’s for a sum of money in the high six figures, and it’s for two years.”

Nelson said the MCI deal is also for six figures, and that a De La Hoya TV commercial is being shown in some parts of the country. De La Hoya will be a spokesman for Champion’s new sports footwear line, also a six-figure deal, according to Nelson.

All of this is in addition to the $1 million in up-front money De La Hoya got last fall when he signed with Nelson and co-manager Bob Mittleman.

Perhaps now De La Hoya and his father, Joel, can take care of Shelly Finkel, the New York manager who sponsored the last two years of De La Hoya’s amateur career.

Finkel, stunned when De La Hoya turned pro with Nelson and Mittleman, said later he had spent $100,000 on the De La Hoyas over a two-year period.

Much was made last summer of De La Hoya’s vow to win a gold medal for his mother, Cecilia, who died of cancer in 1990. Finkel said he not only paid for some of Cecilia De La Hoya’s medical bills, but also for her funeral.

“I expect the De La Hoyas to take care of me--I have receipts,” Finkel said last September.

Finkel isn’t kidding. Two weeks ago, in New York state court, he filed suit against De La Hoya, his father, Nelson and Mittleman. He wants his money back, and he is seeking damages from Nelson and Mittleman.

Meanwhile, De La Hoya’s value on the endorsement market continues to grow as he continues toward a championship fight.

He can take another step toward that May 8 at Stateline, Nev., when he fights Frankie Avelar (15-3). Success there would means that De La Hoya (6-0) would fight Troy Dorsey on June 7.

De La Hoya’s promoter, Bob Arum, has planned a July 17 match with Narcisco Valenzuela, then comes an August bout at the Beverly Hilton Hotel against an opponent yet to be determined.

Then, in September, the goal is a bout with Mission Viejo’s Genaro Hernandez for Hernandez’s World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight (130 pounds) championship.

In anticipation of a run at Hernandez’s title, De La Hoya signed to fight Avelar at 132 pounds. If De La Hoya wins Hernandez’s WBA crown, Arum said that he might then seek a junior-lightweight title match with World Boxing Council champion Azumah Nelson.

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Hernandez, hoping to remain a champion until his hoped-for big payday with De La Hoya in September, draws a tough assignment Monday at the Forum.

Raul Perez, the challenger to Hernandez’s crown, was considered one of the best boxers when he was a long, lean bantamweight champion.

But the 5-foot-11 Tijuana fighter, who defended his 118-pound crown seven times, fell on hard times, beginning in February of 1991. First, he lost his title to Greg Richardson at the Forum. Then he was stopped in three rounds by Wilfredo Vasquez a year ago.

Perez, 42-1 when he won the bantamweight title, is 50-3-1 and has two defeats and a draw in his last six. And he has fought only once in the last 13 months.

Hernandez (27-0) grew up in South-Central Los Angeles but moved to Mission Viejo a year ago.

Actually, Hernandez is a bigger name in Japan and France than in the Southland. He won his title in France in November of 1991 and has defended it twice in Japan.

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It’s called “Boxing Treasures,” and it’s exactly that--a boxing exhibit at Los Angeles’ Ziffren Center Library.

The centerpiece item is the robe Gene Tunney wore when he was heavyweight champion, from 1926 to 1928.

Also on display are shoes, gloves and trunks worn between 1899 and 1905 by Los Angeles’ only heavyweight champion, Jim Jeffries; Primo Carnera’s size-24 boxing shoes and a plaster cast of the 6-foot-5, 265-pound Carnera’s fist; Billy Papke’s speed bag, and Fidel La Barba’s 1924 Olympic gold medal.

The exhibit ends July 15. Details: (213) 730-9696.

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Don King has lured junior-middleweight champion Terry Norris away from Van Nuys promoter Dan Goossen.

Norris’ manager, Joe Sayatovich, said King has offered Norris $5 million for four fights, all within the next seven months.

“It’s a good deal for Terry,” Sayatovich said. “It’s a lot of money for a short-term period, and we pick the opponents, not King.”

Boxing Notes

The North vs. South California Golden Gloves championships will be held tonight at 7 at the Lincoln Park Recreation Center, 3501 Valley Blvd. Winners advance to the national Golden Gloves tournament at Little Rock, Ark., May 10-15.

Onetime Azusa amateur Zack Padilla (15-1-1) draws his toughest pro match tonight on ESPN, two-time champion Roger Mayweather (43-8). Padilla, a junior-welterweight, had a good outing on ESPN in February, stopping Ricky Meyers in the sixth round. Also on the card is Glendale welterweight Pepe Reilly (1-0). . . . USA Boxing, the governing body for U.S. amateur boxing, is exploring a possible “coaching exchange” with the Cuban Boxing Federation.

The World Boxing Council recently had the remains of Battling Siki, 1920s light-heavyweight champion, moved to his native Senegal from New York. . . . . Julio Cesar Chavez, Mexico’s junior-welterweight champion, will receive Hollywood Park’s Outstanding Achievement Award today at 1 p.m.