BOXING / CHRIS DUFRESNE : For Duva, the Fight With De La Hoya Is Outside the Ring

Lou Duva isn’t fighting Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand on Saturday. It only seems that way.

Duva is the pug-nosed veteran trainer for John John Molina, who has nothing against De La Hoya except that he must defeat him to wrench the World Boxing Organization lightweight title from the one called “Golden Boy.”

Duva, well, that’s another story. This spat predates the 1992 Summer Olympics, when Duva and business partner Shelly Finkel were courting De La Hoya, the prospect.

Finkel threw a lot of seed money at Oscar, more than $100,000 Finkel claims, hoping De La Hoya would win the gold medal and sign with him as a professional.

Duva worked with De La Hoya in the ring. Finkel worked behind the scenes, loaning Oscar $17,000 to buy a car, chipping in for living expenses, even paying $4,500 toward funeral expenses for Oscar’s mother, Cecilia, who died of breast cancer.

De La Hoya won the gold, sure enough, but then elected not to sign with Finkel and Duva.

Fast forward to Thursday. At the news conference to introduce Saturday night’s fighters, veins bulged in De La Hoya’s forehead at the dais as Duva described what his man, Molina, was going to do to De La Hoya.

After Molina, from Puerto Rico, made a brief statement in Spanish, Duva jumped up to interpret: “He said he’s going to kick his. . . .”

Molina’s remarks, in fact, had been respectful.

Later, De La Hoya would remark, “I want to put the Lou Duva camp out.”

Because of Duva’s mouth?

“Oh yeah,” De La Hoya said.

Feelings were mutual.

“I don’t give a . . . what he thinks of me,” Duva said. “Why doesn’t he give us the $100,000 he owes us?”

Finkel has sued De La Hoya and Co. to recoup his losses.

Duva suggested De La Hoya might be served legal papers this weekend. Finkel, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, is expected to arrive in Las Vegas today, his secretary said.

Duva said what De La Hoya did after Barcelona was wrong.

“What I have against him and his father (Joel) is the way it was done,” Duva said. “The way they abused Shelly, didn’t give him the courtesy of sitting down and working it out. I don’t like the way he handled Shelly. He embarrassed him.”

De La Hoya said he had nothing personal against Finkel.

As for Duva, well, he’d best not venture too far from his corner Saturday night.

*

You’ll have to excuse every heavyweight with a pulse for beating a path to the Indiana Youth Center in rapt anticipation of Mike Tyson’s March 25 release from prison.

In this day of boxing doldrums, Tyson’s freedom after three years behind bars will mark boxing’s biggest-ever coming out party.

How big?

George Foreman, who must first defend his heavyweight title against Axel Schulz on April 22, already is being swamped with questions regarding a possible year-ending showdown with Tyson.

“It would be greater than the woman whose beard touched the floor,” Foreman bellowed, choosing an appropriate circus analogy.

Riddick Bowe apparently isn’t waiting around. Wanting to--sorry--plead his case to fight Tyson first, Bowe and manager Rock Newman reportedly will visit Tyson in prison on March 13.

Of course, promoters are pushing the Tyson story line along. Bob Arum, who promotes Foreman, has said a Tyson-Foreman matchup would generate as much as $250 million in gross revenues, with the fighters and promoter left to split $100 million.

Arum said, flat out, it would be the biggest event in boxing history.

“Not even close,” Arum said. “Not even Ali-Frazier I.”

The mystery of Tyson makes it all the more intriguing. What kind of shape will he be in? How soon can he fight? Whom will he fight?

There are reports he could be back in the ring eight weeks after his release. There are whispers he might take a warm-up bout with Peter McNeely, a Boston-based heavyweight.

What kind of fighter will Tyson be at 28? Will a religious conversion in jail soften the almost wild-animal drive that made Tyson the youngest heavyweight champion and one of the most feared?

Will he resume his ties with promoter Don King or try to distance himself from a man some would say was part of the problem?

King was unusually subdued in a phone conversation this week, not wanting to respond to Foreman’s demands that King step aside to facilitate Foreman versus Tyson.

Don King not wishing to return fire? Curious, indeed.

If Tyson returns to King, what does that say about Tyson and prison rehabilitation in general?

“If he goes back (to King), he’s just another fighter,” Lou Duva said.

*

Been there, done that: James Toney would like to avenge his Nov. 18 loss to Roy Jones Jr. in a rematch as light-heavyweights, but Jones said this week he is not interested.

“I did that before, and he did it before,” Jones said on a conference call from New York, where he was shooting a promotional spot for HBO. “It turned out OK for me. I don’t think he liked it that well. If we were going to cross paths, we would have crossed paths right after that fight.”

Saturday, Toney will fight for the first time since the loss to Jones when he meets Montell Griffin on the undercard of De La Hoya--Molina.

Jones, who won a unanimous decision to take Toney’s International Boxing Federation super-middleweight title, did not rule out fighting Toney again.

“It’s kind of like I’m the lawman,” Jones said. “I go around looking for trouble-causers. If anybody is going to cause trouble, then I’ll go straighten it out. But I don’t think nobody’s going to cause no trouble no more.”

Then, Jones got all mushy and confessed: “He’s a good fighter. Toney can be champion of any weight class he chooses.”

Boxing Notes

The on-again, off-again relationship between James Toney and manager Jackie Kallen appears to be on again. Thursday, the two walked into a news conference holding hands. “Everything’s better than it’s ever been,” Kallen said. After Toney lost his title to Roy Jones Jr. last November, he reportedly threatened to kill Kallen. There were published reports this week that they were still at odds. But Thursday, the two were all smiles.

Jones, who will make the first defense of his International Boxing Federation super-middleweight title March 18 against Antoine Byrd, is completing details on a three-year, multimillion-dollar contract with HBO. Stanley Levin, one of Jones’ attorney’s, said it will be the largest HBO contract signed by a non-heavyweight.

George Benton, longtime Dan Duva camp member and Pernell Whitaker’s former trainer, has signed with rival Don King Productions. In King’s camp, Benton will train heavyweights Oliver McCall and Tony Tucker and junior-welterweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez.

Calendar

Monday: Sammy Fuentes vs. Fidel Avendano, welterweights; Mark Johnson vs. Leon Salazar, flyweights; 7:15 p.m., at the Forum.

Thursday: Ricardo Vargas vs. Ancee Gedeon, bantamweights; 7:30 p.m. at the Irvine Marriott.