BACKED INTO A CORNER

One would have to be blind to avoid seeing Oscar De La Hoya this week. His face is plastered on banners and billboards, shown over and over again on television and the Internet, featured on the covers of major magazines and splashed across newspaper sports sections across the country.

Wherever he goes in preparation for Saturday night’s blockbuster match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, De La Hoya is protected by bodyguards and publicists, hounded by the media and pursued by fans hoping for an autograph, a picture or even just a wink and smile.

In contrast, Winky Wright walked through the MGM Grand hotel on Wednesday afternoon barely causing a ripple. Knowledgeable fans turned their heads, but the tourist crowd didn’t flinch. They wouldn’t know Winky Wright from Orville Wright.

It’s not that Wright is a nobody in the sport. Far from it. He is a former undisputed super-welterweight champion who has fought some of the biggest names in boxing in a career that spans nearly two decades.

The problem is the sport itself. There is De La Hoya and there is everybody else, and that leaves a gap into which the sport’s visibility and popularity have plunged.

Even more ominous for boxing, the hole has been at least partially filled by mixed martial arts, a combination of boxing, wrestling, judo and karate that has become a rising phenomenon, especially among 18- to 34-year-olds.

The swing in fortunes has caused Saturday night’s fight, potentially the biggest non-heavyweight bout ever, to be portrayed as boxing’s last hope, perhaps even its last big event.

De La Hoya, who is not only the star attraction Saturday but the promoter as well, doesn’t buy it.

“I don’t think there is pressure on my shoulders to save boxing,” he said. “This is not a dying sport. There are still big fights here, big fights in England, big fights in Germany. The sport is alive and well. It’s just a matter of making the right fights.”

But, the 34-year-old De La Hoya says, when he, the Golden Boy, departs the ring, it could be the end of a golden era, at least for the near future.

“I don’t think we will have mega-fights for a while,” De La Hoya said. “Good fights, yes, but not mega-fights. That is the big challenge to us as promoters. Boxing will take a hit. I understand that, but it will never be out.”

It might seem curious to ponder the future of a sport that can produce an event such as De La Hoya-Mayweather. Despite a purchase price of $55, the pay-per-view audience is expected to exceed the 1.4 million for De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad in 1999, the record for a non-heavyweight bout, and could challenge the all-time mark of just under 2 million for Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield II in 1997 and Tyson-Lennox Lewis in 2002.

The 16,500 seats in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with a top ringside price of $2,000, sold out in three hours, generating $19 million in revenue, surpassing the record $16.8 million for Tyson-Holyfield II. The total revenue from the match, to be seen in 176 countries, is expected to exceed $100 million and could challenge the record $112 million generated by Tyson-Lewis. Also, 15,700 seats for a closed-circuit showing of the fight in Las Vegas have been sold.

This is a sport on the ropes?

Yes, because of:

* The lack of charismatic, impact fighters in the heavyweight division, long the bellwether of the sport. Much has been made of the fact that the major heavyweight figures now are Eastern Europeans. From Max Schmeling to Ingemar Johansson to Lewis, American audiences have warmed to foreign heavyweight champions. But only if they had talent or could generate excitement, two areas in which the current crop is sadly deficient.

* The absence of definitive titles and fights. Nine out of 10 fans attending Saturday night’s match probably couldn’t tell you what De La Hoya and Mayweather are fighting for (World Boxing Council super-welterweight championship). Nor do they care. The preponderance of alphabet organizations and weight classes has rendered titles relatively meaningless. It’s the names of the major fighters that matter now, and too often, they won’t fight each other because of disputes over money, television contracts or promoter loyalties.

* The failure to attract a new generation of quality fighters.

“If Muhammad Ali was 17 years old, he’d be a tight end for Louisville High School,” promoter Bob Arum said.

Indeed, the appeal of football, basketball and baseball and the uncertainty of a career in the ring has siphoned off much of the talent.

The showcase of the Olympics used to inspire young amateurs. It did that for De La Hoya, who went on to win a gold medal. But with boxing off network television for decades and largely relegated to the second or third tier of Olympic coverage, young fighters toil in relative anonymity. Andre Ward won Olympic gold for the U.S. in 2004. Compare his visibility now -- yes, he’s still fighting -- with that of De La Hoya.

Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the dominant organization in mixed martial arts, is quick to declare boxing is in its death throes.

“For me,” he said, “boxing served as a road map for what not to do. The powers that be over the last 40 years stuck out their hands and ripped the life out of the sport. It was all about how much I can earn right now and don’t worry about tomorrow.

“Where have all the young people gone? They are not watching boxing. On Saturday night, that arena will be a ghost town until 15 minutes before the main event. That’s all they have ever promoted in boxing, the main event.

“This is the last big hurrah for boxing. There’s only one guy [De La Hoya] left and when he’s gone, it’s over.”

Said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, “It’s like Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France. Having a signature superstar gives a sport the attention it needs. But once he’s gone, is there anybody to take his place?

“I don’t think kids have the nostalgic connection to the nostalgic sports. It’s not just boxing. Baseball is trying to come to grips with a generation that is not playing the game, but out riding skateboards.”

While some dispute UFC’s pay-per-view numbers -- it claims a range of from 500,000 to 1.2 million buys per event -- there is no doubt its events have sold out arenas from Los Angeles to Manchester, England.

Bernard Hopkins, one of the top middleweight champions in boxing history and now a partner in De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, says his sport must now look over its shoulder.

“The UFC puts on competitive events with a lot of action and a lot of blood,” he said. “Boxing is at a crossroads. People want to see more knockouts.”

Richard Schaefer, head of Golden Boy Promotions, says the key to boxing’s future is in the list of corporate sponsors he has put together for Saturday night’s match. Nine Fortune 500 companies have not only put their money into the event but are publicizing it at their retail outlets across the country.

Golden Boy also has featured De La Hoya on various Internet sites, from Yahoo to MySpace to YouTube, to appeal to Generation Xers.

“I see no reason why boxing cannot be bigger, much bigger, than UFC,” Schaefer said. “You’ve got promoters like Bob Arum going around saying the sport is dying. Maybe he ought to retire and leave the sport to people who are more constructive.”

Said Mark Taffert, senior vice president of HBO pay-per-view: “There are always peaks and valleys in boxing. But whenever there’s a big event, people come home.” The cable network is not only showing the fight but has put on a four-episode preview of the match in prime time.

“Boxing goes through cycles,” boxing historian Bert Sugar said. “Up until 1955, it was one of three top sports, along with baseball and horse racing. But by then, the only two recognizable champions were Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson, both long in the tooth. Then along comes Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali in the 1960s and it goes back up again.

“Boxing is thought of as 11th on the top 10 list of sports today. If the four heavyweight champions were to go into a police lineup, wearing gloves and trunks and holding their belts, not only would nobody know who they are, they wouldn’t know what they do for a living.

“But if this fight is half as good as the buildup suggests it will be, it could move boxing back into the mainstream.”

steve.springer@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The last big fight?

Saturday’s Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. bout is expected to draw the largest pay-per-view audience for a non-heavyweight title fight. A look at some of the most highly anticipated eagerly awaited non-heavyweight super fights since 1980:

*--* Fight Date Venue Result Leonard-Duran I June 20, 1980 Montreal Duran W 15 Leonard-Duran II Nov. 25, 1980 New Orleans Leonard TKO 8 Leonard-Hearns I Sept. 16, 1981 Las Vegas Leonard TKO 14 Pryor-Arguello I Nov. 12, 1982 Miami Pryor TKO 14 Hagler-Hearns April 15, 1985 Las Vegas Hagler TKO 3 Hagler-Leonard April 6, 1987 Las Vegas Leonard W 12 Chavez-Taylor I March 17, 1990 Las Vegas Chavez TKO 12 De La Hoya-Chavez I June 7, 1996 Las Vegas De La Hoya TKO 4 De La Hoya-Trinidad Sept. 18, 1999 Las Vegas Trinidad W 12

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De La Hoya can become the highest-grossing attraction in pay-per-view history Saturday:

*--* Fighter PPV events PPV buys PPV revenue Mike Tyson 12 12.4 million $545 million Evander Holyfield 14 12.6 million $534 million Oscar De La Hoya 17 10.4 million $492 million

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