De La Hoya’s Fans Still Loyal

As the sun broke through the overcast skies Sunday morning, supporters of hometown hero Oscar De La Hoya tried to look on the bright side of what they called his shocking loss to Puerto Rican welterweight Felix Trinidad.

“He’ll be a better man for losing,” said Sally Guzman of Santa Fe Springs, echoing the sentiments of many on the Eastside.

“Oh yeah, he should have won the fight,” said her husband, Anthony.

Although there are no immediate plans for a rematch, there was overwhelming agreement in random interviews that De La Hoya will avenge the loss if a rematch occurs.

“He will win,” said Chris Calzada, 17.

Some thought there was a conspiracy behind the loss, De La Hoya’s first in 32 professional bouts, to the undefeated Trinidad.

“Oh, they stole the fight from him,” said Jose Quinones, 85, of East L.A., as he and Luis Quintero, 84, of Santa Ana, lounged outside St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church on Atlantic Boulevard. “He was robbed,” Quintero added.

When pressed, they couldn’t be specific about who might be behind De La Hoya’s loss.

The sunshine seemed to be the medicine that warmed people up to discuss the Las Vegas fight. The chilly, overcast night before, no one was in a mood to talk.

Managers of several Eastside restaurants and bars showing the fight reported that the crowds left quickly and quietly when the judges declared Trinidad the winner. “It was weird how they just left,” said one bar manager. “No screaming, no cussing, nothing. They just got up and left.”

By morning, disbelief had turned to disappointment. The De La Hoya faithful had taken it for granted that their golden boy would win.

“Disappointed,” Alicia Gutierrez, 31, of Pico Rivera, said in Spanish as she browsed at Olvera Street. “Yeah, me too,” husband Jose said in English.

The loss apparently did little to tarnish De La Hoya’s standing with Latinas, who have been attracted to his fights because of, among other things, his good looks.

Though he has fathered a child out of wedlock and has been accused in a civil case of raping a 15-year-old girl in Mexico, several Latinas said Sunday they were forgiving and think the loss might even be good for him.

“The loss will make him realize he just can’t skate on his ‘Golden Boy’ [image] because he’s a pretty boy,” Sally Guzman said. “He’ll come back.”

Anita Garcia, who was walking her dog at Belvedere Park in East Los Angeles, agreed. “It’s easy to criticize someone who is on top.”

Added the pro-Oscar Claudia Fragoso, 25, during breakfast at Tortillas, a Montebello sports bar: “He’s a boxer. I’m not interested in his personal life.”

Still others, who called themselves true boxing aficionados, said they would have none of the sociological explanations of what the loss might mean for De La Hoya’s standing on the Eastside. They said he lost because he stopped fighting aggressively in the late stages of the bout.

“I expected a brawl, but no one got knocked down,” said Hector Laija, 28, of East L.A. “That’s why he lost. He went to a [jabbing, less physical] style that no one wanted to see. I wanted Trinidad to win, but not like this.”

In Florida, where interest in the fight in the fast-growing Puerto Rican community was high, one restaurant south of Orlando without the capability of showing the fight closed early so employees could watch at home.

“We let everyone go at 9:30, 2 1/2 hours early,” said Javier Rodriguez, manager of Puerto Rico’s Cafe in Kissimmee.

In Puerto Rico, support for Trinidad convulsed the island.

The island Legislature set up 16 screens in the Capitol building in San Juan, and passed out tickets to 8,000 residents of nearby low-income housing projects so they could come and watch.

The Puerto Rico Corrections Department paid nearly $40,000 for the rights to show the fight to 700 of its best-behaved inmates as a way to promote good behavior.

After Trinidad’s victory, one observer, real estate agent Bob Baker, said the street celebrations near Old San Juan, which included nonstop car horns, lasted until 5 a.m.

“This made up for the fact that Hurricane Floyd missed us,” he said.

Times staff writer Mike Clary and Times researcher Ann M. Virtue in Miami contributed to this story.