For De La Hoya, This Loss Has Feel of His Biggest Win

Seated a few feet from Oscar De La Hoya on Saturday at a news conference at Universal Studios was Felix Trinidad, his next opponent and probably his toughest.

Yet, De La Hoya, who will face Trinidad on Sept. 18th at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Hotel, smiled as if he didn’t have a care.

That’s because Mike Hernandez, De La Hoya’s former manager/advisor/guru and once a constant presence in De La Hoya’s life, was nowhere to be seen.

De La Hoya has severed his ties to Hernandez.

“It’s something I should have done a long time ago,” said De La Hoya, who will put up his World Boxing Council welterweight title against Trinidad’s International Boxing Federation crown. “I didn’t feel like I had total control of things. Outside of the ring, I didn’t know what was going on. It was a huge load that I was carrying. I dumped a lot of excess baggage. It should be a smooth ride from now on.

“I never made decisions. Like with my foundation. It was a big mess. We raised a lot of money, but we can do better. Anybody who works for me now has to come to me--lawyers, agents, people from the foundation. They all have to come to me. I make the decisions.”

HALL OF FAME? NOT IN TIME OF SHAME

Bob Arum received the greatest honor that can be bestowed on a promoter last weekend when he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

But he didn’t deserve it.

Says who? Says Bob Arum.

“It’s a honor, but it’s ludicrous,” he said. “I don’t believe any current promoter deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Not now when the sport seems to have passed its zenith. There used to be boxing on every network. Boxing was shown on television as much as two to three times on a weekend. But it was allowed to all fritter away because of how the sport was conducted. With all the backbiting, the networks got fed up to the point where now, in many quarters, boxing isn’t even considered a sport. We’ve allowed that to develop.

“I could say it was not me. I’ve done some big fights. But for that, I don’t feel I belong. But I certainly wasn’t going to turn it down. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt the Hall of Fame.”

STILL THE KING OF CONTROVERSY

Think there was enough controversy surrounding the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title unification fight in March?

The rematch is generating some angry heat of its own. And the deal hasn’t even been finalized yet.

At the center of it all is--surprise, surprise--Don King.

The reports that Holyfield and Lewis, who battled to a questionable draw at Madison Square Garden, will definitely meet again Nov. 13 in Las Vegas were premature.

The fight is expected to come off, but nothing can happen until the current stalemate between King and Time Warner Sports is broken.

King has asked Time Warner, parent company of HBO and TVKO, to put up a guarantee of $18 million to $20 million for the fight.

Time Warner has agreed to do so, but only if a clause is inserted into the contract that King will be out as promoter of the fight if he is indicted before Nov. 13 on charges that he illegally influenced the outcome of the first Holyfield-Lewis match.

Questionable scoring by one judge in particular, Eugenia Williams, has led to an investigation.

“When an unpopular decision came,” King said, “not a corrupt decision but an unpopular decision, I was abandoned like the bubonic plague.

“I’m not giving up my rights. I’m not giving up the presumption of innocence. . . . An indictment is only an allegation. If they have trouble being associated with me, then they can buy me out, or I will buy them out.”

Countered Lou DiBella, HBO vice president: “This has nothing to do with civil liberties. If the promoter from the first fight was to be indicted, we would have a hard time selling a second fight if he was connected to it.”

King is also being investigated by a federal grand jury in Newark, N.J., looking into the IBF. But HBO officials say they are not concerned with the effect of that investigation on Holyfield-Lewis II. They only want to make sure any new dirt from the first fight doesn’t completely bury their hopes of selling the second one.

“I got a $10-million site fee [at the Mandalay Bay Hotel]. . . . Holyfield wants the fight,” King said. “I want the fight. The only one holding it up is HBO. If it falls through, we’ll go on about our business.”

It doesn’t figure to fall through. There is too much money for all concerned.

The fight will go on. And so will King. He always does.

HOME-GROWN TITLE

Unable to afford world title fights, Forum Boxing has nevertheless found a way to stage championship events. It creates its own through the vehicle of tournaments.

The latest, complete with an impressive-sounding name that should be the envy of any of the ranking organizations, begins tonight at the Great Western Forum. It is the six-month World Boxing Hall of Fame junior-welterweight tournament.

In tonight’s opening round at 7:15, unbeaten Luis Perez (13-0, nine knockouts) faces Rosenberg Palacios (15-3-2, 10 knockouts), and Juan Giron (13-5-3, eight knockouts) fights Teddy Reid (12-2).

Two more first-round matches will be held July 26, the semifinals Sept. 13 and 27, and the championship bout Dec. 6. The winner gets $12,000.

And the Forum gets a champion.