Victorious De La Hoya was taken to limit

Dean Juipe

Monday, Feb. 15, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

By the time the fight was over, Ariel Caveda actually looked more like Oscar De La Hoya than De La Hoya did.

Caveda is a Las Vegan with a remarkable likeness to the WBC welterweight champion, so much so that he won a contest sponsored by a local TV station Friday at Benihana's. His prize was a ticket to Saturday's fight between De La Hoya and Ike Quartey at the Thomas & Mack Center.

After the fight had run its grueling course and De La Hoya was left to mend his many wounds, Caveda stood sentry-like on the arena's ground floor near the back of the press area. Handsomely dressed and groomed, he inadvertently offered something of a before-and-after profile of De La Hoya.

He was the before.

De La Hoya, his face swelled to almost unimaginable contortions, was the after.

Holding a towel to his left eye and steadily daubing at it, the 26-year-old Californian had train wreck written all over him. Yet he was able to smile, solely the result of his split-decision victory over Quartey that preserved his perfect record and vaunted reputation.

"I still have my title," he happily expressed in spite of a fatigue that required him to spend more than an hour backstage before re-entering the arena for the postfight press conference. The smile was the only hint that he was the winner, as Quartey -- who wryly smiled at De La Hoya throughout much of the fight -- was relatively unmarked in comparison.

This was a tough fight in which both men took and delivered punishment. The judges' verdict was the consequence of two of them believing Quartey took more than he delivered.

Predictably, he didn't agree with a fight that was scored 115-114 for Quartey and 116-112 and 116-113, respectively, for De La Hoya.

"I did everything," the native of Ghana said in his halting English. "I think I'm the best."

But failing to win any of the final three rounds on any of the judges' cards hollowed Quartey's protests. A fight he could have won eluded him and his record fell to 34-1-1.

"This guy hits hard," De La Hoya said from the muffled confines of his towel. "It's painful. He's strong, solid. I have nothing bad to say about him."

Back near where Caveda was standing was another interested observer, Oba Carr. Earlier in the evening Carr took a decision victory over Frankie Randall, with the right to face De La Hoya next the prearranged prize for the winner.

Inexplicably, Carr was never called to the postfight podium, and, instead, was left to feeling something of a second-class citizen in spite of the fact he's in the on-deck circle and awaiting the battered Golden Boy. Yet the slight was hardly a new experience for him, given his reputation as a good although not great fighter.

"I need to prove to people that I'm a real champion," said Carr, who is 48-2 but is 0-2 in world-title fights. "I've had so many difficulties in boxing and in my life, but now I'm a stable individual. I'm feeling the sky's the limit, but I need to beat De La Hoya or else it doesn't matter what I say."

Carr vs. De La Hoya had been pencilled in for May 22 at Mandalay Bay, but that date is now tentative and could be pushed back to accommodate De La Hoya's healing process. Regardless, and in spite of calls for an immediate De La Hoya vs. Quartey rematch, it's Carr who has the contract and will be up next.

"I see some flaws in his game," Carr said of De La Hoya. "He's fundamentally sound, yet I can pose a threat to him. I'll be like Quartey except I'll throw some combinations off those jabs."

Carr, a southpaw from Detroit, was brilliant in defeating Randall and won every round of the 10-round fight on the Sun's scorecard. The judges had him up by 9, 5 and 5 points.

But even after his victory, Carr needed De La Hoya to win in order to cash his advance. The jackpot must have figuratively dangled in front of him as he watched the pay-per-view bout from his dressing room.

"I thought it was going to be a draw," he said. "It was a very close fight and the 12th round was magnificent. The only thing I can say about Quartey complaining is that you can't have a 12th round like he did and win a championship."

Aided by a knockdown, De La Hoya won the final round by two points on each of the judges' cards. After the knockdown he pinned Quartey in a corner and relentlessly hammered away, with referee Mitch Halpern poised to make a stoppage if Quartey gave any indication he couldn't continue.

But Halpern didn't have to intervene and wisely stayed out of it, as Quartey took all De La Hoya had to offer without tasting the canvas.

It was a priceless finish to an excellent, although hardly classic, on-and-off brawl between 147-pounders. Footage from the 12th round will have a timeless quality to it, and from the sixth round as well as both men went down -- in De La Hoya's case, the fourth time he had hit the floor in what is now a 30-0 professional career.

"I'm not a quitter," De La Hoya said later of pulling himself up from a knockdown to win, just as he had done in earlier fights with Narciso Valenzuela, Giorgio Campanella and Pernell Whitaker. "I told myself, 'Hey, I'm going to get right back up.' "

And he did. And although there were moments when neither man was willing to risk taking a big hit to deliver one, the fight continued and both had their moments.

It's just that appearance-wise, De La Hoya took the worst of it.

"I'm going to take a nice hot bath and see how I feel about it," he said when asked if May 22 was too soon to fight again, although the final decision may still be a few days away.

Carr took the news with a shrug and ambled toward the exit, a mixed bag of signals emanating from his shuffling posture. He was but an afterthought on his finest night as a fighter.

From his position nearby, Ariel Caveda quietly took it all in with an attentive eye searching for detail. As he perused the setting he looked dignified and debonair, just as his look-alike had a few hours earlier.