De La Hoya Coming to Grips With Less-Than-Golden Slights

Hear enough catcalls, get a beer or two tossed your way, and, if you’re Oscar De La Hoya, pretty soon you figure it out: Maybe this is how life is going to be every time you wander back to the old neighborhood.

So, he grits his teeth at the ruder moments--somebody shouting, “Oscar, what are you doing at a Mexican parade?” and others pelting him with debris as he’s serving as the grand marshal of the recent Mexican Independence Day parade in East L.A.--counts his ever-growing millions, and accepts the fact that no matter what he does as a fighter, Oscar De La Hoya may never be embraced by large and vocal segments of his own community.

“In the rest of America, they love me,” De La Hoya said recently. “But this little community here, something’s wrong with them. It’s jealousy. It’s like they don’t want to see someone succeed from the neighborhood. They want to pull him right back down. That’s what it is.”

Already, De La Hoya is one of the most successful, famous and, without question, controversial Latino athletes to come from L.A., and there is no sign that any of it is slowing down, despite the left shoulder injury that caused him to postpone his fight with Miguel Angel Gonzalez until January.

Even after his dominating victory over Latino idol Julio Cesar Chavez last June, even after vaulting himself to the top of boxing’s pecking order, even after spending $500,000 to buy and refurbish the old Resurrection Gym and turn it into a youth center, the contempt many hold for him is something De La Hoya sees and feels more now than ever.

“You know, I’m learning how these people are,” he said. “We call them la raza, ignorant. They don’t know what boxing is. They don’t have the slightest idea what a boxer is. They just want to see blood and guts, and that’s all it is.

“I have a lot of fans here. I have a few that don’t like me, but I have no problem with that.”

A few weeks ago, De La Hoya and several friends walked into the Forum during a bout, causing a building-wide stir--including a rumbling “Cha-vez! Cha-vez!” chant and at least one cup of beer that landed in his vicinity--that lasted several minutes.

Doesn’t that make a 23-year-old Mexican-American three-time champion uneasy?

“Actually, it makes me happy,” he said. “When I walked in, the Forum was quiet, they were just concentrating on the fight. And when they saw me, I got every single person’s attention in that arena--everybody was up. That’s what counts.

“I mean, hey, at least I’m not a fighter who walks into an arena and nobody pays attention to me. That’s the reason people pay to see me fight. I’m not arguing with any of it.”

At times, De La Hoya has been frustrated, but those around him who know the East L.A. fight community tell him to ignore the attitude.

“I think it’s just some stupid people,” said Mike Hernandez, De La Hoya’s closest advisor. “I think he’s taking it too serious. He hasn’t done anything wrong to the community, so he shouldn’t feel bad.

“I just tell him, ‘The more they yell at you, the more tickets they buy and the more money you make.’

“I know he isn’t hated. He goes to Mexico, I see it, he’s loved--in Cabo, in Yucatan, in Mexico City, they love him. So why should I be concerned about a few idiots who are drunk throwing beer at him? They don’t mean anything.”

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De La Hoya doesn’t play down his feelings about Fernando Vargas, who has repeatedly criticized De La Hoya, who was also at the parade and whose fans apparently were involved in some of the pelting of De La Hoya.

Although the 18-year-old Vargas, who was a top pick to win a gold medal at the Atlanta Games but failed to get into the medal round, is from Oxnard, suddenly, he has become something of an East L.A. favorite. And he has not shrunk from baiting the 1992 gold medalist.

“He tried to be like me and win a gold medal, but he was too cocky, he was too overconfident,” De La Hoya said of Vargas. “He wasn’t focusing on his career, he was focusing more on me.

“I think he is obsessed with me. He might be in love or something, I don’t know--he just doesn’t leave me alone. People always ask me if I’m going to give him the opportunity to fight me. But I’m never going to give him that opportunity, ever, ever, ever. . . . I would never, ever give him a good payday.”

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With several weeks left of therapy to calm down the tendinitis in his left shoulder, De La Hoya--after a lot of first-hand experience--admits he isn’t at his best when he’s away from boxing for more than a month or so, and it will be six months between fights when he faces Gonzalez.

“The less time I have off, the better,” De La Hoya said. “Every time I fight, I have a month, two months off, I gain about seven, eight pounds, I’m out of shape, I have to get back into it.

“So [in 1997] I would like to fight maybe four pay-per-view fights and then fight maybe on HBO or maybe even on [network] prime time, just to stay busy. Not that I get into trouble, but it keeps me out of trouble. It keeps me in shape to get my fights over with and retire earlier.”

Right now, the tentative plans are for a Chavez rematch in April or May, then a Pernell Whitaker bout next summer. Beyond that, De La Hoya says, are possible fights against Felix Trinidad and Terry Norris, who may end up fighting each other in early 1997.

Beyond that?

“The final opponent to just end my career right would be [super-middleweight champion] Roy Jones,” De La Hoya said of the fighter many consider the most talented in the sport. “I would love to fight him. I know it’s possible. I could get to 165, no problem. If he’s still there in two or three years, I would love to fight him.”

Boxing Notes

Who wants to train Riddick Bowe? Apparently not Eddie Futch anymore. Tired of Bowe’s laziness and manager Rock Newman’s explosive nature, the 85-year-old legend walked away from the Bowe camp this week, just as Bowe is facing the most important fight of his career--his Dec. 14 rematch with Andrew Golota. There are plenty of talented trainers out there, but who has the strength to deal with the quirks of Bowe and Newman, and the experience at such a high-profile level? Emanuel Steward and Teddy Atlas are taken. Maybe George Benton, who used to train Evander Holyfield and Pernell Whitaker, or Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, a former James Toney trainer. Maybe nobody.

Whitaker’s promoter, Main Events, is still pushing for a bout with Felix Trinidad on HBO, and is offering Trinidad, one of Don King’s fighters who usually fights on Showtime, $4.5 million, four times more than Trinidad has ever been paid. But Trinidad has many options, including a big fight with King stablemate Terry Norris. Or, he could simply wait until Oscar De La Hoya is available in late 1997.

King won the purse bid for the World Boxing Council heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Oliver McCall but the bout won’t, as was rumored, be on the King-promoted Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield undercard Nov. 9. That card already is overloaded with the Michael Moorer-Frans Botha and the Henry Akinwande-Alex Zolkin fights. Lewis-McCall, made possible when the WBC did as a New Jersey court ordered and stripped Tyson of his WBC belt, probably will go sometime in January.

Fernando Vargas is scheduled to make his pro debut in L.A., probably at the Sports Arena on Nov. 29, against an unidentified opponent, and will share the bill with heavyweight prospect David Tua. . . . Lightweight prospect Shane Mosley, who hasn’t fought since last February, has finally signed with promoter Cedric Kushner, and is scheduled for a bout on the Nov. 1 Danny Romero-headlined card in Fantasy Springs on ESPN. Former amateur star Carlos Navarro is expected to be on the undercard.