It’s Time to Step Up

Maybe the dull performances and pratfalls were all a wonderful feint, Pernell Whitaker’s latest, greatest accomplishment of fistic wizardry.

Maybe Oscar De La Hoya’s career trajectory is rising so high, so fast, it doesn’t matter, anyway.

“Every fighter has his moment,” De La Hoya said. “And my time is now--that’s for sure.”

This fateful intersection of two vastly incongruous careers--the power-hitting East L.A.-born, 24-year-old De La Hoya is nine years younger and five inches taller than the Virginia-born and bred Whitaker--happens tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center, with Whitaker’s World Boxing Council welterweight title on the line.

And, with the kind of easy confidence that has marked his emergence as the highest-profile, biggest-earning non-heavyweight in the sport, De La Hoya leaves little doubt that Whitaker is merely one, not-too-challenging step on a long climb. International Boxing Federation champion Felix Trinidad, De La Hoya insists, is his “ultimate fight.”

De La Hoya, whose WBC super-lightweight belt is not being contested, already has claimed titles in three weight classes over his 53-month professional career, and a victory tonight would get him two-thirds of the way toward completing his goal of winning titles in six divisions.

“I don’t want to get overconfident, but I’m stronger and faster,” said De La Hoya, who is making his first start at the 147-pound limit. Before a screaming crowd of several hundred, made up mostly of women, De La Hoya weighed 146 1/2 Friday afternoon--the same as Whitaker. This is Whitaker’s lowest weight since he dominated Julio Cesar Chavez in September 1993.

“He can’t handle speed,” De La Hoya said. “He’s a small guy--doesn’t belong in the welterweights.”

De La Hoya supports those words with statistics: Since he began fighting for world titles three years ago, De La Hoya is 12-0, with 10 knockouts--seven of them in the fourth round or earlier, and he suggests that Whitaker probably will be a knockout victim too.

“I’m thinking of that in the back of my head,” De La Hoya said.

But in De La Hoya’s last bout, a 12-round decision over Miguel Angel Gonzalez, he was less than devastating. He never seriously wounded Gonzalez, and didn’t use his right hand.

But he has hinted that his right hand could be crucial in this fight, especially if he spends some of it switching from his usual right-handed style to southpaw.

A left-handed stance, the De La Hoya camp figures, would be useful to counterattack Whitaker’s awkward, twisting left-handed style.

“That’s the only thing, he’s a southpaw,” said De La Hoya’s older brother, Joel, who is one of the corner men. “He’s a difficult southpaw fighter. Whitaker’s not the greatest boxer in the world, he just has a difficult southpaw style.”

Whitaker, meanwhile, is 20-1-1 in title fights--but with only four knockouts, and against Diobelys Hurtado in January he was knocked down twice and needed an 11th-round knockout to win.

“Hurtado didn’t have any power,” De La Hoya said. “He didn’t have anything. And he still dropped Whitaker. Twice.

“Going backwards, that tires you more, and Whitaker doesn’t have the same legs. So he tries to go forward, and that doesn’t tire you as much. He’s trying to go forward and trying to intimidate his opponent with strong punches. But he doesn’t have much of a punch, so that doesn’t worry me at all. If he does hit me, it won’t hurt me.”

Whitaker, who also struggled in two tight victories over Wilfredo Rivera at junior-middleweight in 1996, hasn’t had a significant bout since his 1993 domination of Chavez, which was controversially ruled a majority-decision draw.

How can anyone who looked as if he had lost so much lateral movement and so much speed in the last three fights defeat De La Hoya, who tore through Chavez in four rounds last June?

“I got a little magic for this show,” Whitaker said.

At his best, Whitaker was an untouchable 135-pound speed demon, piling up clear-cut lightweight victories over Fred Pendleton, Azumah Nelson and Jorge Paez in the early ‘90s before moving up to welterweight.

Whitaker calls this his “Hall of Fame fight,” the perfect way to fool the boxing establishment one more time.

“When the media peels back, it’s going to be just you and me,” Whitaker said, speaking of De La Hoya. “When they lock that cage, it’s going to be me and you. Then you’ve got to show all you’ve got. If you can live up to all your expectations, I’ll be the first to give you a hand.

“I have nothing to lose. I’ve done it all.”

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FIGHT FACTS

WHO: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Pernell Whitaker

WHERE: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas.

WHEN: Tonight, about 8:15

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

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

WAY TO SEE IT: Pay per-view, TVKO

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TALE OF THE TAPE

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De La Hoya Category Whitaker 24 Age 33 146 1/2 Weight 146 1/2 5-11 Height 5-6 72 Reach 69 39 Chest (Normal) 37 42 1/4 Chest (Expanded) 39 1/2 31 3/4 Waist 28 131/2 Calf 14 15 1/2 Neck 15 1/2 9 Fist 10 1/4

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