De La Hoya Plans to Fight in June, Seeks Opponent

Oscar De La Hoya has decided to fight not once, but twice this year. He has a date for the first fight, June 5, and a preferred month, November, for the second match.

Now comes the tricky part. He needs opponents.

His first choice is Felix Trinidad, who beat De La Hoya on a majority decision in 1999. Trinidad, who has been retired since May 2002, is ready to come back and fight De La Hoya, according to Don King, Trinidad’s promoter.

Trinidad says he will come back if the deal is right.

De La Hoya, unwilling to go through intermediaries, has been attempting to negotiate directly with Trinidad, but has been unsuccessful.

De La Hoya’s next choice for an opponent would be Shane Mosley, who has handed De La Hoya his other two defeats, including a loss by unanimous decision in September.

In both of those fights, Mosley received the smaller guarantee by a wide margin. When he refused to do so again for a proposed third fight, De La Hoya told Mosley to go out and prove his worth against another opponent. Mosley has done just that, signing to fight Winky Wright on March 13.

De La Hoya could face the winner of that match, who will emerge as the undisputed 154-pound champion. That’s unlikely because, even assuming the winner emerges relatively unscathed, he would have less than three months to prepare for a June 5 match against De La Hoya.

Fernando Vargas, recovering from a back injury, does not appear ready for De La Hoya. A move up to 160 pounds to face Bernard Hopkins is an intriguing possibility, but one De La Hoya has previously envisioned as the finale to his career.

All that is assured at this point is that De La Hoya plans on being in some ring somewhere June 5.

Steve Springer

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Figure Skating

World champion Evgeni Plushenko of Russia held on to first place Tuesday after the men’s short program, overcoming a weak landing on a combination and a strong showing by Brian Joubert of France in the European Figure Skating Championships at Budapest, Hungary.

Plushenko’s routine to tango music had marks from 5.4 to 5.8 for required elements, and 5.6 up to one 6.0 for presentation. In the interim scoring system and random picking of judging, no one knows whether that 6.0 counted.

Joubert’s marks ranged from 5.4 to 5.9 for required elements and from 5.6 to one 5.9 for presentation.

After two days this year, the Russians have solid leads in three events, with the women’s competition starting Friday.

Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov led the compulsory dance.

Russians are in the top two positions in the pairs event. Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin, the European champions the last two years, led, with Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov second.

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Baseball

UCLA Coach Gary Adams, in his 30th year in charge of the Bruins, will be inducted Jan. 7 into the American Baseball Coaches Assn. Hall of Fame.

Adams, 64, has a 949-792-7 record with the Bruins. His 1997 team reached the College World Series.

The New York Yankees have worked out a trade to get third baseman Mike Lamb from the Texas Rangers.

The deal for a minor league pitcher cannot be finalized until the Yankees clear a spot on their 40-man roster for Lamb, the Rangers said.

Benji Gil homered and had three of 15 hits by Mexico (2-1) in a 10-4 victory over Puerto Rico (0-3) in the Caribbean Series at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Mendy Lopez drove in the winning run in the 10th inning to give the Dominican Republic (3-0) a 4-3 victory over Venezuela (1-2).

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Miscellany

Patrick Racing will leave the troubled Championship Auto Racing Teams series and join the rival Indy Racing League if a sponsorship package can be arranged.

CART, founded in 1978 by U.E. “Pat” Patrick and car owner Roger Penske, became a publicly traded company in 1998 and filed for bankruptcy late last year.

Its assets were sold in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis last week to a group headed by three other team owners who want to revive the series under the name Open Wheel Racing.

Penske left CART for the IRL two years ago.