Oscar’s Dance Card Empty

From the streets of San Juan to the hills of Cupey Alto to the shores of Fajardo, they will be partying today. And tomorrow. And probably into the new millennium.

All the political controversy of recent weeks over the status of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico is temporarily forgotten. A smooth, sharp, tough welterweight named Felix Trinidad has given his native land the ultimate status in the boxing world by handing previously unbeaten Oscar De La Hoya his first defeat.

His nose bloody, his trunks stained red, with swelling under his left eye and a cut above the left eyebrow, Trinidad fought back in the final rounds to win a majority decision at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

There were no knockdowns in the fight.

Judges Jerry Roth (115-113) and Bob Logist (115-114) gave the fight to Trinidad. The third judge, Glen Hamada, scored the fight even, 114-114.

The Times had De La Hoya winning the fight, 115-113.

“I always said from the very beginning I was the No. 1 welterweight and I was going to prove it and I did tonight,” said Trinidad (36-0), who adds De La Hoya’s World Boxing Council title to his own International Boxing Federation welterweight crown.

“I know I won,” De La Hoya said. “He’s a great fighter. Very strong. But I thought I had the fight easily and I hurt inside emotionally.”

Countered Trinidad: “I came to win. I’m very humble. He moves very well. All he did was run in the last four rounds.”

No argument there.

De La Hoya (31-1) seemed to have fought a brilliant tactical fight through the first nine rounds. He didn’t buy into the idea of going after Trinidad in the early rounds even though Trinidad has a history of starting out tight and cold.

Instead, De La Hoya got on his toes and stayed there. He moved from side to side to frustrate Trinidad, whose style in the past has been to move forward and strike with a powerful right hand and devastating left hook.

There wasn’t much for Trinidad to strike against the elusive De La Hoya.

But in most of the early rounds, De La Hoya, despite his constant movement, was able to score with combinations, landing two punches to every one landed by Trinidad.

“My tactic was to take his confidence,” De La Hoya said.

But by the start of the 10th round, De La Hoya, who had trained for a solid three months for this fight, seemed to be out of gas. He was still trying to dance, but gradually gave up trying to land any meaningful punches. His strategy by then seemed to be to sit on his lead and hope it was enough.

“I wanted to demonstrate that I could put on a boxing show,” De La Hoya said, “but I guess it didn’t work. To my fans, I’m very sorry. I love you guys and I’ll be back.

“Some people didn’t appreciate my boxing talent. Boxing counts. Next time, I’ll be a brawler. I wanted to go out there and demonstrate my boxing talent, but obviously it wasn’t appreciated by the judges.”

A celebration had been planned for San Juan for today long before Saturday and it began before the opening bell.

Much was made of the fact that Trinidad figured to be tight because of the magnitude of the event, one bigger than anything he had ever experienced. But if Trinidad was tight, he disguised it well.

With the group Terror Squad in the ring entertaining the crowd and a line of Puerto Rican flags stretching all the way back to his locker room, Trinidad strolled toward his meeting with destiny as if he were already back in San Juan marching down the street.

The smile that has been on his face throughout the weeks of prefight buildup was still there. So was the sparkle in his eyes.

But finally, after the introduction of a lineup of celebrities worthy of Oscar night--Hollywood-style--and the singing of the Puerto Rican, Mexican and U.S. anthems, and yet another delay while one of his handlers went back to the locker room to get Trinidad’s mouthpiece, the analysis and anticipation, the predictions and posturing were over.

And, 12 furious rounds later, the golden run of the golden boy was over. The product of East Los Angeles who had come out of Barcelona with a gold medal and capitalized on it to become one of the highest-paid fighters in boxing history was left with the same bitter taste of defeat in his mouth that all his previous opponents were forced to swallow.

And with this defeat, the boxing picture has been turned upside down. Bob Arum, De La Hoya’s promoter, now is at the mercy of his most hated rival, Don King, Trinidad’s promoter.

And King, counted out more times than a journeyman, is back in command, with another of his fighters, heavyweight Evander Holyfield, scheduled to fight Lennox Lewis in November.

“One down and one to go,” a beaming King said from the ring.

“I hope we can do it again,” De La Hoya said. “But right now I am going on an immediate vacation to rethink everything.”

There is too much money to think about anything but a rematch. De La Hoya was guaranteed $21 million from this fight, Trinidad $10.5 million.

“Was I worth $10.5 million?” Trinidad asked De La Hoya before the two fighters left the ring.

Not for nine rounds. But when De La Hoya’s energy gave out, Trinidad earned a place in boxing history for himself by winning the richest non-heavyweight bout ever and earned new pride for Puerto Rico.

DE LA HOYA va. TRINIDAD

Scoring

114-114

Glen Hamada

Tacoma, Wash.

*

115-113

Jerry Roth

Las Vegas

*

115-114

Bob Logist

Belgium

*

Trinidad scores listed first; Trinidad wins by majority decision