Oscar, Time for Actions, Not Words

Oscar De La Hoya, shut up already. Just shut up and fight.

When you use your boxing skills, you are capable of achieving great things.

But when you open your mouth in public, you seem incapable of keeping your foot out of it.

Hopefully, the apology you issued Friday over an insulting remark you made in a Spanish-language newspaper about promoter Bob Arum’s religion is a sign you finally have learned to admit your mistakes and accept responsibility for your behavior.

This should be a happy time for you, Oscar.

Your boxing career, sidetracked by two losses in three fights and a ninth-month hiatus to try a singing career, seems back on course.

You finally accepted that trainer Robert Alcazar, although good at a rudimentary level, was incapable of taking you higher and boldly cut your ties to the man who had been with you since you were 12.

In his place, you put Floyd Mayweather Sr., who showed what he can add to your repertoire last Saturday night, your first fight with him in your corner. Against Arturo Gatti, you seemed lean, mean and fluid, with your right hand now a key weapon in your arsenal.

You didn’t listen to those who said you could never escape your legal ties to Arum, proving them wrong. You found a judge who freed you from your contract and then replaced Arum with Jerry Perenchio.

Your first promotion under Perenchio had its problems, and drew criticism from outside and inside your organization, but things turned out well. A late surge in ticket sales pushed the live audience beyond 10,000. Now if all your legal wrangling with HBO is over, perhaps your next fight can be shown live on the West Coast, rather than tape-delayed, as was the case last week.

Although Gatti hardly was a world-class opponent, you showed world-class talent.

All in all, this should be a time for smiles and adulation. So why are you under siege, the object of attacks from fans and talk-show hosts alike? Why does the nickname “Golden Boy” seem almost laughable now? Why so much consternation among your handlers?

We know you don’t want to hear this, Oscar, because you are not very good at accepting personal responsibility for your failures, but you’ll find the answer in the mirror.

You have caused your own problems.

In ridding yourself of Alcazar and Arum, you could have been kind and sensitive.

Alcazar, for all his faults, had been by your side for so long. Arum had done a masterful job of promoting you. Certainly he lined his own pockets but he also created the environment in which you earned $125 million in the ring and millions more in endorsements.

Instead of showing the slightest shred of gratitude, you spent last week shredding the reputations of Arum and Alcazar, along with those of everyone else who ever trained you.

In media gathering after media gathering, you said that you had learned next to nothing from all your previous trainers--a group that included Hall of Famer Emanuel Steward. What about all the previous praise you had heaped on everyone from Jesus Rivero to Gil Clancy? Lies?

And can Mayweather look forward to the same verbal abuse when, as seems inevitable in your camp, he too is gone?

You said that Arum had done such a poor promotional job that people would come up to you the day of a fight, not realizing you were going to be in the ring that night.

If so, they must have come from another planet.

Have you forgotten Arum’s cross-country promotional tours, or that your 1999 fight against Felix Trinidad was the richest non-heavyweight bout in boxing history?

Finally, last week, in La Opinion, you took one more swipe, an especially vicious swipe, at Arum, claiming that he wanted to keep you down because you are Mexican-American, conveniently forgetting to mention that he tapped into the Latino market more effectively than any other promoter in boxing history, concluding with a slur by saying you had “defeated one of the biggest Jews to come out of Harvard.”

And you want to be called the Golden Boy?

That sucking sound is your endorsement market drying up.

You have done the seemingly impossible by making Arum a sympathetic figure.

Perenchio, a billionaire who had been out of the boxing business for a quarter-century, must be thinking, “I came back for this?”

Oscar, if you just keep your mind, and your remarks limited to boxing, you have a plan for the months ahead that looks solid.

First, you are moving up from 147 pounds to take on World Boxing Council 154-pound champion Javier Castillego June 9.

That’s a fight you figure to win easily, putting you in perfect position midway between the two men who have defeated you, Trinidad, who has moved to 160, and Shane Mosley, who has your old WBC welterweight belt.

Trinidad, committed to a middleweight tournament, is scheduled to fight William Joppy May 12.

But after that tournament ends in September, or earlier if he should lose to Joppy, Trinidad might well return to 154 to fight you. With his archenemy, Arum, out of the picture, Don King, Trinidad’s promoter, might find it easier to strike a deal.

On many scorecards, including mine, you beat Trinidad by two points in the first meeting, even though you ran for the last three rounds. You certainly would have a good chance in the rematch, with Mayweather in your corner.

Mosley will be much tougher. But you did well against him in the first half of your match last June and must find a way to sustain that.

Mosley’s father-manager- trainer, Jack Mosley, already has said Shane would come up to 154 to fight Trinidad. There’s no reason to think he wouldn’t do the same for you. And at 154, Mosley’s blinding speed might be dulled just a bit.

Neither fight would be easy, but you need to take them both to achieve the greatness you so desperately want.

But greatness requires more than just being an excellent boxer. It also means being a good human being.

You may be a commanding presence in the ring, but can you be a compassionate soul outside the ropes?

To demonstrate that will require more than merely Friday’s apology issued through your office. Your actions and statements in the days ahead will be the true test.

Those who will judge you as a person don’t have to have scorecards or understand the rules of boxing. They need only understand the qualities of humility and decency.

The question is, do you?