While De La Hoya Is Cruising, Leonard Off on a Macho Trip

LAS VEGAS — Dr. Oscar De La Hoya, surgeon general of boxing’s super-lightweight division, completed his successful operation here Saturday night, then stood on the ropes, hands held high in triumphant gesture to the crowd of 11,417 in the Thomas & Mack Center.

He is the present and the future of the sport of boxing, an unblemished 23-0 record, a suddenly endearing public and an April date with Pernell Whitaker a testimonial to all that. Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield retain the marquee status of the heavyweight division, but true followers of boxing already are celebrating the purity of De La Hoya’s talents.

He is the Golden Boy of the sport, a fighter who can demolish the likes of his game opponent here, 41-0 Miguel Angel Gonzalez of Mexico, and do so mostly with one hand, a left jab that flicked in Gonzalez’s face all night to the point where it will be understandable if Gonzalez has, for years, nightmares of attacking rattlesnakes.

When De La Hoya stood on the ropes at the end of his 12-round scalpel job on Gonzalez, literally and figuratively on top of boxing’s world, he looked out on an audience that included one who understood that feeling better than anybody else in the place. And there was irony, perhaps even sadness, in that.

Sugar Ray Leonard, in his youth what De La Hoya seems certain to become, if he hasn’t already, had to get a lump of memory in his throat. And, perhaps, a tinge of regret that, no matter how hard he tries, he cannot again climb the mountain that De La Hoya now stands upon.

Oh, Ray is still trying. Sadly, that is true.

Saturday afternoon, at a news conference that was more comical than anything else--but then, aren’t all boxing news conferences?--Leonard announced that he would be fighting again, this time in March, in Atlantic City, against Hector “Macho” Camacho. Leonard is 40 years old. The last time he fought was 1991, when he was destroyed by Terry Norris.

“That was not a pretty sight,” a candid Leonard admitted Saturday.

Nothing about these unretirement, ego-trip, rise-from-the-dead boxing shows that seem to constantly smell up the sport are pretty. And when the thought of Leonard versus Camacho rattles around in the same memory bank with De La Hoya’s show of precision pugilism here Saturday night, it triggers some nausea.

De La Hoya, the pride of East Los Angeles and the only American gold medal winner in his sport from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, landed 361 punches to Gonzalez’s 251. If this was match-play golf, he won, 10 and 9.

And all this against an opponent who is a veteran, who came into the match in great shape, who has been an Olympian and world champion himself and who took everything De La Hoya hit him with and didn’t go down. After all this, it was still a rout.

De La Hoya actually got hit enough to swell a bit under his left eye. Later, he said that was one of the reasons he didn’t throw as many right-hand punches at the end, that he was protecting that eye. He even got booed a few times when, obviously under instructions from his corner to not do anything stupid and to dance away from Gonzalez with the huge lead he had, he appeared to be running. But after one flurry of boos, he hit Gonzalez with a combination that, once again, left the crowd dazzled.

“It was his speed, and his combinations,” Gonzalez said. “He is just very, very fast.”

De La Hoya, not the boastful type, allowed himself a moment of smugness afterward when he said, “My jab felt so good, it was almost like target practice.”

When it was mercifully over, and De La Hoya had descended from his celebration spot on the ropes, the marketing for the Whitaker fight, one of the more attractive boxing matchups in years, got under way.

De La Hoya got $5 million for this fight. Expect that payday to be considerably more for Whitaker. Somewhere out there in the audience was Leonard, certainly remembering, certainly knowing that no matter how hard he battles it, that father time has marched on.

Now, the main trophy boy in boxing is named Oscar.