De La Hoya Has Broadway Smash : Boxing: He finishes off Leija quickly before big crowd at the Garden.

Retirement for Oscar De La Hoya?

Forget it.

On the night when boxing had a rebirth in the building where it routinely used to make its biggest splash, De La Hoya had an emotional rebirth of his own with a swift and sure demolition of Jesse James Leija, the fight stopped after two rounds.

Friday night’s outcome, staged before a Madison Square Garden crowd of 16,027, never seemed in doubt. De La Hoya felt Leija out in the first round, then put him down twice in the second with devastating left hooks.

The second knockdown came with four seconds remaining in the round.

By the time Leija struggled to his feet and was led, on wobbly legs, to his corner by referee Ron Lipton, Richie Giachetti, Leija’s trainer, was already signaling that his fighter was finished.

But De La Hoya? He’s just getting started.

Although this successful defense of his World Boxing Organization lightweight title boosted De La Hoya’s record to 20-0 with 18 knockouts, the East Los Angeles fighter has been talking more and more in recent days about quitting after his planned showdown in May against Julio Cesar Chavez.

But not after Friday night’s victory.

“It’s really how the fans respond,” he said, “but this performance tonight makes me want to stay in boxing a very long time.”

It isn’t as if De La Hoya, 22, pulled off a big upset. He was heavily favored over the shorter Leija. What seemed to invigorate De La Hoya more than his opponent was the whole scene.

The city of New York seems to have become caught up in the plan to move boxing central back from Las Vegas to this huge metropolitan area.

And indeed, the De La Hoya match was like the old days with celebrities such as Walter Cronkite, Mel Gibson, Eddie Murphy, Jeff Bridges, Mike Wallace and many of the New York Knicks taking part in a grand, old New York tradition: Friday night at the fights.

De La Hoya seemed to feed off the electricity.

It helped, of course, to have an opponent such as Leija (30-2-2, 14 knockouts), who gave away six inches and lacked De La Hoya’s potent punching power. While Leija had to work to get up to 134 3/4 pounds, De La Hoya was laboring to come down to 135.

Leija noticed the difference right away.

“After the first round,” he said, “I said, ‘Man, that guy hits hard.’ ”

Leija had no problem with the fight being cut short.

“Hey, the fighter knows best,” he said. “I was beat at that point. I gave my best. I can’t give any more.”

In the semi-main event, Arturo Gatti took the International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight championship from Tracy Harris Patterson, winning by a unanimous decision.

Gatti (24-1, 20 knockouts) put Patterson (54-4-1, 39 knockouts) down in the second round with a right uppercut, the only knockdown of the fight. But it was Gatti who took the brunt of the damage, both his eyes badly swollen by the end.

And finally, while the boxing craze may be back in New York, it may be over in Jasper, Ala. The Butterbean may be coming home to plant his roots.

Eric “Butterbean” Esch lost for the first time Friday night, Mitchell Rose stopping him in the second round of their heavyweight match to lower the 300-pound Esch’s record to 13-1. Rose is 2-6-1.

Boxing Notes

Promoter Bob Arum says he’d like to see Gabriel Ruelas undergo counseling before resuming his career. After losing to Azumah Nelson two weeks ago, Ruelas said he saw the image of the late Jimmy Garcia in the ring during the fight. “In retrospect, it was a horrible blunder,” Arum said of the decision to let Ruelas fight Nelson.