De La Hoya Gets Early Scare : Boxing: He’s knocked down almost at the opening bell but gets up to stop Campanella.

On a night that celebrated rising stars and falling opponents, Oscar De La Hoya performed an unscripted, scene-stealing combination of both.

Before 4,116 at the MGM Grand Friday night, De La Hoya stunned everybody by getting knocked down almost at the opening bell, then got up and won in the first and last defense of his World Boxing Organization junior-lightweight title against Giorgio Campanella.

Earlier, International Boxing Federation lightweight champion Rafael Ruelas and IBF middleweight champion Roy Jones Jr. scored early-knockout victories in both fighters’ initial title defenses.

But De La Hoya, taking trainer Robert Alcazar’s warnings lightly, was cold-cocked by a short left hook from the hard-charging Campanella about 15 seconds into the bout.

“I told him, told him, told him,” Alcazar said. “This guy is a little Mike Tyson. He’s going to be coming right at you.”

It was the second first-round knockdown De La Hoya has suffered in his last three fights, and this one was significantly harder than his flash fall last Oct. 30 before he got up to knock out Narciso Valenzuela.

De La Hoya (13-0, 12 knockouts) was stunned by the blow, but popped up, was yelled at after the round by Alcazar, then dominated Campanella (20-1) by staying away from the challenger’s left hook and scoring from the outside with a quick jab and hard overhand rights.

“I started out trying to be that big, macho fighter, bang with this great banger,” De La Hoya said. “By the second round, I realized that I could easily outbox him, get him from the outside using my reach advantage, and stay away from that left hook.”

De La Hoya knocked Campanella down late in the second round and fired four more shots when Campanella was already on his knees, for which De La Hoya admitted he should have been penalized. Campanella was knocked against the ropes as the second-round bell sounded.

Early in the third, De La Hoya knocked Campanella down with a flurry of lefts to the head and a final clean overhand right. Another series of hard shots after Campanella got up triggered the corner to throw in a towel and referee Joe Cortez to stop the fight with 38 seconds left in the round.

For Ruelas, who survived two first-round knockdowns in his title-winning victory over Freddie Pendleton last February, there would be no problems Friday night.

Evgen, six inches shorter and slower, chose the odd strategy of standing directly in front of Ruelas (41-1, 32 KOs), who punished him relentlessly from the opening moments.

Among many other telling shots, Ruelas snapped a left hook to Evgen’s chin in the first, triggering a devastating array of inside shots that had Evgen’s face swollen before the first was over.

Though trainer Al Bonanni was screaming for referee Mitch Halpern to stop it from the second round on, Evgen (25-3) absorbed the blasts without falling through the second and most of the third, when Halpern finally stopped it at 2:53 of the round.

According to PunchStat totals, Ruelas threw 432 punches--a stunning average of 49 a minute--and landed 212. He threw 342 power punches, landing 180. Evgen landed only 52 total punches.

Jones (26-0, 23 KOs), who had been seething all week about being relegated to the undercard and about Tate’s brash talk, ended the bout with his first punch of the second round.

After battering Tate with counterpunches in the first, Jones let Tate (29-3) walk into him in the second and fired the hook crisply into Tate’s right cheek, knocking him directly on his back.