Quartey still being difficult

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999 | 10:53 a.m.

Behind shades and in the shadows, Ike Quartey has maintained a very low profile for his high-profile fight with Oscar De La Hoya.

The welterweights will meet Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center with De La Hoya's World Boxing Council championship at stake. As always, the champion has made himself available at length for conference calls and interviews of all sorts.

But Quartey has been a publicist's nightmare. Reluctant to speak and with only a limited comprehension of English, the native of Ghana has not participated in any of the usual prefight promotional gimmicks.

Everyone likes Ike, yet hardly anyone has gained an understanding of him as he prepares for the biggest fight of his life.

In fact, at Wednesday's press conference at the Las Vegas Hilton, there was an undercurrent of conversation in the audience about Quartey refusing to take off his dark-lensed sunglasses. Apparently the night before he refused to remove them for a TV interview, and speculation that perhaps he was hiding a cut or a minor injury only increased when he balked at being seen shade-free at the Hilton in spite of the pleas of Top Rank's Bill Kaplan.

Finally, when asked to pose with De La Hoya, Quartey complied and took off his glasses. He appeared to be fine.

"He's not articulate, so it's sort of hard for him," said promoter Bob Arum. "But he's a splendid young man and a great fighter. It goes to show you can't have everything."

Quartey, 29, is 34-0-1 with 29 knockouts but is a plus 280 underdog in the Hilton sports book. He is receiving approximately $3 million for this fight.

"I've been working for this for a long time -- all my life," he said. "I'm the best in the division and I'll prove it.

"I've watched tapes (of De La Hoya) and I don't think he's unbeatable."

De La Hoya is 29-0 with 24 KOs and is a minus 360 betting favorite.

Quartey may or may not be rusty from not having fought in 16 months, and he's coming off a draw with Jose Luis Lopez in his most recent fight. Truth is, he has not won a fight since April 18, 1997.

"Ike had a very bad 1998," said his promoter, Dino Duva. "He didn't fight at all but that's because Pernell Whitaker, Felix Trinidad and De La Hoya all pulled out of fights with him."

De La Hoya and Quartey were originally scheduled to fight Nov. 21 in Las Vegas, but that bout was postponed due to De La Hoya suffering a cut on his left eyelid during a sparring session.

Duva predicted that spectators, including those watching on pay-per-view, will be more impressed with Quartey than they have been in the past.

"There are several fights you've seen in the last few years where Ike wasn't at his best," Duva said. "Saturday he'll be at his best."

Quartey faded badly in the latter rounds and looked fortunate to gain a draw with Lopez. Amazingly, he said after the fight he was still recovering from malaria.

In Quartey's only other two fights with "known" opponents, he handled Vince Phillips in three rounds and took a decision from Oba Carr, both in 1996.

The youngest of 27 children, Quartey is a former Olympian who has had but one trainer since the age of 14: Dan Odamatten. "Ike is very clever," Odamatten said. "You'll see. He has the style to beat De La Hoya."

Quartey's spiritualist, Dr. Oko, concurred.

And Duva called De La Hoya's decision to pursue a fight with Quartey "the biggest mistake of his career."

With each of his associates speaking highly on his behalf, Quartey was able to duck any serious interrogation. After struggling with a couple of TV interviews and declining to meet with the press, Quartey was pulled away from the press-conference crowd by his anxious handlers.

"Come on, Ike, let's go. You don't need to be here," one of them said, whisking the challenger away and toward a side door.