Forget About De La Hoya and Whitaker Going Jab-for-Jab or Punch-for-Punch. They’re Going...POUND FOR POUND

For a while, not long ago, you wondered if even Oscar De La Hoya knew for sure: Does he want to be a fighter, a model or a movie star?

He had the salon hair and the movie-of-his-life offers and $22 million in earnings and he turned 24 in February.

This, boxing people told one another, is how champions crash.

“He looked like a model when he walked into the ring,” said veteran trainer Teddy Atlas, who was on hand to watch De La Hoya’s tougher-than-expected decision victory over Miguel Angel Gonzalez last January.

“I know he’s a good-looking kid, that’s what they say, but I had never seen him look that way, like his hair was moussed before he got into the ring. To myself, I said, ‘He’s into that, and if he gets into that too much, that can stop a real good fighter from being a great fighter.”’

Will he stop himself? Though De La Hoya still has acting dreams, those closest to him say a recent discussion with a major Hollywood player, curiously enough, may have helped recommit him to boxing.

De La Hoya is still scheduled to star in an autobiographical film at some undetermined point but got some advice from Hollywood attorney Jake Bloom.

“He really listened to what Jake Bloom said to him,” said De La Hoya’s business advisor, Mike Hernandez. “Jake Bloom said, ‘You’re going to earn more in boxing now than you would in movies, stay in boxing, earn as much as you can, finish that--then, go do movies.’ ”

De La Hoya could earn an average of $7 million to $8 million a fight in the next two years, and unless he’s an instant Tom Cruise, that is not a payment plan that is going to happen for him in Hollywood.

So the latest, and perhaps lasting, De La Hoya incarnation is this: the cool businessman, with enough real estate properties for his friends to laugh about his being a land baron, with a charitable foundation in East L.A., with sights set on a series of fights that could earn him an additional $30 million to $40 million in the next three years, and with the ability to breezily turn down a recent offer to make an unpaid cameo in the next Kevin Costner movie.

“I don’t work for free,” said De La Hoya, who will pick up $10 million for Saturday’s fight against Pernell Whitaker at the Thomas & Mack Center.

In addition to the purse money, De La Hoya is pulling in about $2 million annually from his endorsement deals with beer, men’s toiletries and clothing companies, among others, and is looking at the possibility of a major, multiyear shoe deal.

In boxing, as in business, De La Hoya is beginning to assume control.

De La Hoya, who has veered away from personal confrontations in the past, apparently raised some minor tension early on in this camp with trainer Jesus Rivero--who had carte blanche the past couple of fights--when De La Hoya decided he would set his own schedule for runs and training sessions.

“He calls the shots,” said his older brother, Joel, adding that the trainer and fighter never were seriously at odds but that the relationship has evolved. “Before it was, ‘OK, whatever you want.’ But now, he’s more in control. And it’s about time, right?”

For his part, De La Hoya says it’s just about being a businessman.

He shook his head when he spoke about Whitaker’s brilliant, 12-year career--and relative lack of huge-money fights (the $6 million he’ll earn Saturday is Whitaker’s biggest payday).

“I wouldn’t have gone through that, that’s for sure,” De La Hoya said. “You have to be smart with what you do in boxing. Fighting all those years and not having a big, big super fight, that’s a shame.

“But he could have presented himself better. Whitaker says crazy things. He’s weird. When Whitaker talks on TV and has all these interviews, it seems like he’s a cocky fighter, like he can beat anybody he wants. . . .

“He was saying he was going to break my arms and break my chin. People don’t want to hear that, they don’t like that. Maybe the die-hard boxing fan gets a kick out of that, but the regular person is like, what kind of guy is this?

“Whitaker [almost] never fights on pay-per-view because he won’t draw.”

De La Hoya draws, though, proved beyond doubt when the Gonzalez fight, his first PPV bout without another drawing card on the bill, flew past expectations and was ordered by an estimated 380,000 homes.

And De La Hoya has analyzed the numbers like a movie executive studying weekend grosses.

“In that fight, we noticed that we didn’t draw the most from the Mexican American crowd,” De La Hoya said, referring obliquely to his well-documented cool relationship with the boxing fans of his home community. “We drew more of the American crowd, which is something I’ve always been hoping for.

“Now, I know that if the Mexican American or Mexican fans don’t support me, it doesn’t matter, because I have fans all over the world. I didn’t think there would be that many this time, but we were surprised we had Louisiana, Nebraska. . . .”

And, in this businessman mind-set, De La Hoya didn’t mind analyzing the immediate career trajectory of his upcoming opponent.

“Is this a good fight for Pernell Whitaker?” De La Hoya said, repeating the question with a wicked smile. “Well, it could be his last.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FIGHT FACTS

WHO: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Pernell Whitaker.

WHERE: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas.

WHEN: Saturday, about 8:15 p.m.

WHY: For Whitaker’s World Boxing Council welterweight title.

WHY II: For money. De La Hoya gets $10 million, Whitaker $6 million.

WAY TO SEE IT: Pay-per-view, TVKO