Dean Juipe: De La Hoya a good bet indefinitely

Friday, Jan. 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

THE RISK of a professional boxer having an agenda with specific opponents already lined up well in advance is that one loss and -- poof -- everything's askew. Mike Tyson -- who was to have worked his way around the heavyweight division unifying the major titles -- is the perfect example of best intentions having gone astray, his career totally disrupted by an unexpected loss to Evander Holyfield.

The only other fighter with the credentials, the wherewithal, the connections and the ability to make long-range plans is Oscar De La Hoya.

He's fighting Saturday in Las Vegas against Miguel Angel Gonzalez, plus he has signed to fight Pernell Whitaker in April. Beyond that is a probable fight with Kostya Tszyu later this year, to be followed by Felix Trinidad, Ike Quartey and Terry Norris.

Each of those men are world champions, and if De La Hoya comes through that sequence unscathed he will truly become the legendary figure he says he's committed to being. Running the table against those guys would be an incredible feat.

Here's a futures bet that would get some action in any Las Vegas sports book: yes or no, De La Hoya retires undefeated.

Bettors this week have been sufficiently tempted by Gonzalez to have driven those numbers down. De La Hoya, once 11 to 1 to win the fight, is down to 7 1/2 to 1 today. Obviously, more people than not would take the "no" portion of the facetious prop bet on De La Hoya retiring undefeated.

But it won't be Gonzalez who beats him, and it won't be Whitaker either.

Gonzalez is a good, undefeated fighter with youth, size and power. Yet he's up against a better fighter with youth, size, power and speed in abundance.

De La Hoya wins, maybe within a very few rounds.

He also beats Whitaker, although that could take a little longer as De La Hoya will have to chase him down. But it's inconceivable Whitaker has the strength to keep De La Hoya at bay for 12 rounds, and at some point De La Hoya will have him cornered or along the ropes and put him away.

Things get a little less certain beyond that. Tszyu hasn't been seen quite enough to know if he has the heart and the chin to withstand a fight with De La Hoya, while Trinidad and Quartey are big punchers who are begging for the type of money a fight with De La Hoya would bring.

De La Hoya vs. Trinidad, Quartey or Norris are all brawls that could go either way. Also to be factored in: De La Hoya would be adding 14 pounds (from where he is now) for a fight with Norris, and while much of that would be solid muscle, at some point the Golden Boy could go from pliable to overly bulked, a tactically sound fighter stuck within a suit of armor.

Yet, while it's only logical to believe there's a limit to how many weight divisions De La Hoya can conquer, to this point he has never failed to deliver.

Given his already remarkable successes, the prudent approach is to take him against any and all.