De La Hoya, Mosley Seem to Be Made for Each Other

To Shane Mosley:

To Oscar De La Hoya:

It’s time. Make the fight.

Nov. 3 is reserved.

The money is there. The interest is there. The need is there.

Make the fight.

It has been a year since you staged your memorable match at Staples Center, an all-Southern California battle that ended with a furious, entertaining 12th round and a split decision for Mosley.

Shane, you clearly won the match, but Oscar, you had your moments early, winning the first half of the fight before fading.

But since the roar of the crowd died out that night, neither of you has had much to cheer about.

For De La Hoya, Bitterness and Blame

Defeat was unfathomable for De La Hoya. Unable to accept the loss, he fell back on excuses, claiming he had eaten a bad oyster the night before. He lashed out at those around him, cutting ties to promoter Bob Arum and trainer Robert Alcazar.

And ultimately, De La Hoya turned his back on the sport that had been his life, taking nine months to launch a singing career.

When De La Hoya returned in March, the public accepted his opponent, a game but overmatched Arturo Gatti. All comebacks should start with a human punching bag in the opposing corner.

The public also accepted last week’s fight against Javier Castillejo. While nobody outside of Spain took Castillejo seriously, he was as justified an opponent because he enabled De La Hoya to win a title--the World Boxing Council super welterweight championship--in his first fight as a 154-pounder.

But that’s it. De La Hoya has used up the goodwill of a supportive public that has twice packed the MGM Grand Garden Arena for his comeback fights and delivered respectable numbers for the telecasts. The Gatti match had a 3.2 rating on HBO, nearly double any other sporting event on cable that weekend. Around 375,000 bought last week’s pay-per-view telecast, a large number for a weak De La Hoya opponent.

But the boxing public won’t buy another stiff. De La Hoya’s new promoter, Jerry Perenchio, needs to make a big splash.

For this, De La Hoya must fight one of the Big Three--Felix Trinidad, Fernando Vargas or Mosley.

Trinidad is gone and he’s not coming back. Now fighting at 160 pounds, Trinidad and his father, Felix Sr., have their sights set on Roy Jones at 168. Unless Jones backs out, as he has been known to do, the two probably will meet after Trinidad defeats Bernard Hopkins, as expected, in September.

Vargas is scheduled to fight Jose “Shibata” Flores on Sept. 22, which eliminates him from De La Hoya’s November pay-per-view date.

And besides, having been knocked down five times by Trinidad and once by Wilfredo Rivera in his last fight, Vargas is not ready for De La Hoya. And his handlers privately concede that.

For De La Hoya, that leaves Mosley.

Make the fight.

For Mosley, Frustration and Futility

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

After fighting in the shadow of De La Hoya, Mosley figured he finally had stepped into the spotlight by defeating him.

But in the last year, he has fought Antonio Diaz, Shannan Taylor and, on July 21, will face Adrian Stone. Mosley has fought in theaters and ballrooms for much less than he made against De La Hoya. In fact, Mosley’s opposition and paydays haven’t been appreciably better than they were before he overcame De La Hoya.

Does the blame lie with Cedric Kushner, Mosley’s promoter, or Jack Mosley, Shane’s father/manager/trainer?

Neither, really. It is simply a lack of opposition.

The solution? De La Hoya.

Money, which was a problem when the rematch first was discussed, no longer is an issue. Jack says his side will settle for a 50-50 split. De La Hoya can’t expect a better deal than that.

Weight isn’t an issue. Mosley says he’ll come up to 154 to face De La Hoya.

Kushner, with only two fights left on his contract with Mosley, needs a big-money blockbuster to hang on to his fighter. Jack hasn’t said Shane will leave Kushner, but he also hasn’t given Kushner a public vote of confidence.

Arum and Don King are waiting should Kushner fail to deliver the big fight.

And Kushner, still smarting from having lost heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman to King in a New York courtroom Thursday, knows all too well King’s persuasive powers.

If Kushner wants to stop King from snatching up yet another fighter, he better sign on the dotted line with De La Hoya.

Great fights have a tendency to slip away if they are not made in the brief window when the opportunity arises.

Both fighters are in prime condition, the terms are amenable, their schedules coincide, the public interest is there, the date is set.

Make the fight.

Quick Jabs

Johnny Tapia (49-2-2, 26 knockouts), who has been a champion at 115 and 118 pounds, will face former WBC featherweight champion Cesar Soto (53-9-3, 39) in the 10-round main event tonight at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center. The semi-main event will match Felix Flores (17-2, 13) against DeMarcus Corley (25-1-1, 15) for the vacant World Boxing Organization junior-welterweight title. The fights will be shown tape-delayed on Showtime at 10 p.m.