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Pastimes : Boxing: The Sweet Science -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LPS5 who wrote (2184)	3/19/2001 4:08:46 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10489

Let's give him a shot at Butterbean before we let him have a go at Tyson or Lewis.

To: LPS5 who wrote (2184)	3/19/2001 4:09:03 PM
From: LPS5	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 10489

Oscar takes the wimpy way out by Michael Rosenthal Oscar De La Hoya is 28. It's about time he learned to take responsibility for his life. Two comments he made on a telephone conference call to promote his comeback bout against Arturo Gatti on Saturday in Las Vegas were disturbing and revealing. A reporter pointed out that some people believe De La Hoya was beaten in his four biggest fights -- against Pernell Whitaker, Ike Quartey, Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley -- and asked how he responds to such criticism. "I can say don't blame me," De La Hoya said. "Blame the trainer I had. I can do only so much myself. ... If no one is teaching me, I'm not progressing." Cringe. Later, he was asked why he typically has others fire employees he no longer has use for. "I have appropriate people handle my dirty work," he said rather coldly. "There's a chain of command I follow. I'm the president of my company. I have people working for me to do those jobs. It's like any other business." Wince. The first comment -- about whom to blame for his difficulties -- fits a pattern: De La Hoya will say anything to make himself look good. If it means ripping former trainers Robert Alcazar, Emanuel Steward, Jesus Rivero and Gil Clancy, he has no problem doing it. If it means disparaging former promoter Bob Arum -- who helped him earn $100 million-plus -- so be it. The idea is to deflect any and all criticism so his reputation remains pristine. However, this question must be asked: Does he really believe people don't see through it? Obviously, his trainers must take some blame for setbacks. It's their job to help prepare him to fight. Even more obviously, De La Hoya must take the bulk of the blame. He's the one doing the fighting. The right thing for him to do would be to own up, to admit he failed and try to do better the next time. Ironically, he'd get the respect he craves if he did. Instead, he takes the easy way out -- he blames others for his failures. As a result, he comes off as the type of person he'd never want to be: a wimp. His second comment -- about having others fire people -- was more stupid than anything but it does point to another problem: His inability to confront people, whether it's someone close to him who's made a dubious decision or the person he decides to let go. Sometimes, he goes even further than having someone do his dirty work. Clancy, the respected trainer who worked with Alcazar, learned he was fired by reading it in the newspaper. Ouch. Now, all this isn't to dismiss De La Hoya as a horrible person. He isn't. He's simply irresponsible. An irresponsible person blames others for his problems. An irresponsible person has his henchmen fire someone with whom he once worked closely. This can't be the type of person De La Hoya wants to be. Next up: De La Hoya, who is expected to beat Gatti easily, still has hope of meeting Felix Trinidad in a rematch this year. De La Hoya is expected to move up from 147 pounds to 154 to challenge WBC junior middleweight champ Javier Castillejo of Spain in June. He then hopes Trinidad will fight him in September. As of now, Trinidad faces William Joppy on May 12 and plans to fight the winner of the Bernard Hopkins-Keith Holmes fight after that. "Anything is realistic in this business," he said of a bout with Trinidad. "Look at the money he'll make (against Hopkins or Holmes) compared to how much he'd make against me." If not Trinidad, he'd like a rematch with Shane Mosley. "I'm going to train even harder for Mosley so I can put a stop to him being called the best fighter in the world," De La Hoya said. Huge underdog: Gatti, as much as a 30-1 underdog, knows why De La Hoya chose to fight him. And he's fine with it. "He thinks it's going to be an easy fight because I cut easy and all that," Gatti said. "... That's great. It's good to know. Just the way his trainer (Floyd Mayweather) spoke to me (at a recent news conference) I could tell he doesn't take me seriously. "It doesn't matter in the ring, though. It's going to be a great fight." Old dog? De La Hoya has been raving about the job Mayweather has done in camp. He said he's learned more in a few months with Mayweather than he did his entire career. Gatti doesn't buy it. "You can't teach a fighter who's been fighting for 12, 13 years something new. He is who he is," Gatti said.