Ready for His CLOSE-UP

His face beams from posters up and down Seventh Avenue and from billboards in Times Square. He can be seen on TV and in the newspapers.

A New Yorker would have to be blindfolded not to know that Oscar De La Hoya is in town to fight at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

And just who is it he will be fighting?

Who knows?

A New Yorker would have to have the eyes of an eagle to spot the name “Derrell Coley” in small print at the bottom of all that signage.

It’s as if De La Hoya is a concert artist and Coley is his accompanist.

De La Hoya mocks the man he will share the ring with in Saturday’s bout for the little-known and less-regarded International Boxing Assn. welterweight title.

“I have no idea how he fights,” De La Hoya said. “I have seen no tapes of him. I have not studied him.”

Last year, De La Hoya said he didn’t even know who Coley was.

Coming off his first loss, to Felix Trinidad in September, and hoping to sign for a rematch against Trinidad in June, De La Hoya is treating Coley as if the best Coley can hope for is to be the answer to a trivia question: Who did De La Hoya fight to stay warm between the two Trinidad fights?

So how does old what’s-his-name feel about being the best-kept secret in New York? Disgusted? Embarrassed? Puzzled?

How about thrilled, elated and brimming with excitement.

Coley, a man with a weak chin and questionable credentials, is certainly talking a good game.

After all the battles he has had, both in and out of the ring, including a fight with his promoter, Dan Goossen, just to get here, Coley doesn’t care what they say about him.

“I am not here to build my ego,” Coley said. “I am not here to see my name on billboards. I am here to fight.”

And win, he insists. And win by knockout, he boasts. Coley is even predicting the round.

“I am going to knock Oscar De La Hoya out in the sixth round,” he said. “I am not even training for 12 rounds. I am training for six.

“We’ve already planned a victory party.”

Asked Wednesday if he was worried that De La Hoya would have an edge if the fight went to a decision, Coley smiled and said, “Haven’t you been listening to what I said? I told you, this fight won’t go past the sixth round. You can leave the judges home.”

For inspiration, Coley has chosen to focus on the long, sometimes bizarre struggle he has undergone to get either De La Hoya or Trinidad in the ring. He has convinced himself that they have been ducking him out of fear, and that is the true measure of his worth.

The 29-year-old Coley, who grew up in the Washington (D.C.) area and started boxing when he was 9, will enter the ring Saturday with a 34-1-2 record and 24 knockouts.

He lost in 1995 to Oba Carr, whom De La Hoya beat last year on an 11th-round technical knockout.

Coley has demonstrated an alarming inability to stay on his feet. Glass chin? The man must shave with window cleaner. He was knocked down five times in two fights alone.

He has, however, shown some resiliency. Knocked down in the third, fifth and seventh rounds of a 1997 bout against Kip Diggs, Coley came back to win on an 11th-round knockout.

In 1998, Coley became the World Boxing Council’s No. 1 contender in the welterweight division, the man De La Hoya was supposed to fight.

But without a recognizable name or much of a following, even in the D.C. area, Coley was hardly an opponent that De La Hoya’s promoter, Bob Arum, was interested in. Coley couldn’t generate the kind of revenue Arum needs to provide the huge purses De La Hoya has become accustomed to.

So Coley remained outside the circle of world-class welterweights, fighting people like Mike Bryan and Ivan Ledon over the last two years, never earning more than $25,000 for a fight while De La Hoya and Trinidad--fighters Coley honestly believes he can beat--added millions to their bank accounts.

“One day, you are going to be recognized,” Coley’s older brother and mentor, Jeff, told him. “I know you feel you are getting short in time because you are getting older. But you put in 20 years. You can’t give up now.”

After agreeing to step aside, with no monetary compensation, to allow De La Hoya to fight Trinidad, Coley figured he would finally get his shot after Trinidad upset De La Hoya.

But the waiting was killing Coley.

“He may be the same as Oscar but he wasn’t getting paid the same,” Jeff Coley said of his brother. “When you are not getting paid and you are not getting your shot, it makes your mind heavy. Oscar could sleep well, knowing he was going to wake up every day a millionaire.”

Finally came the most crushing blow of all for Coley.

On the night of the Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield rematch last November in Las Vegas, Coley got a call at home from his manager, Barry Linde.

Get out here right away, Coley was told. Your promoter, Goossen, is about to give away your right to fight Trinidad to another of his fighters, David Reid.

And what was Coley’s reaction when he heard that?

“I cried like a baby,” he said.

Things got even uglier. Goossen offered Coley $200,000 to step aside. Linde hired an attorney, cut Goossen out of the process and began talking directly to Arum.

Arum, with an agenda of his own, was interested. With Trinidad moving up to 154 pounds to fight Reid next Friday at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Arum sold WBC President Jose Sulaiman on the idea that, if Trinidad stays at 154, the winner of Saturday night’s De La Hoya-Coley bout between the top two 147-pound contenders be awarded the WBC’s welterweight crown.

“I knew Arum had only one direction to go all along,” said Goossen, who still has Coley under contract, but is now alienated from the fighter and his manager. “This is what I was working for. It is disappointing that Derrell and Barry Linde don’t understand that.”

What Coley does understand is that, whatever wheeling and dealing it took, he finally has the purse--$1,025,000--and the fight he has so long dreamed of.

“This ain’t about a belt,” he said. “This ain’t about money. This is about opportunity. I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

And if, against all odds, he should win, Coley might also finally get himself on a billboard in Times Square.

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Fight Facts

Coverage for Saturday’s 12-round IBA welterweight fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Derrell Coley at Madison Square Garden in New York begins at 6 p.m. on HBO:

DE LA HOYA

Record 31-1

Knockouts 25

Age 27

Home Los Angeles

*

COLEY

Record 34-1-2

Knockouts 24

Age 29

Home Gary, Ind.

SATURDAY’S FIGHT

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Derrell Coley

For IBA Welterweight Championship

Telecast begins 6 p.m., HBO

Madison Square Garden, New York