Columnist Dean Juipe: De La Hoya has broken his promise

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 | 10:06 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

When he came out of the Olympics in 1992, Oscar De La Hoya was a great fighter with a bright personality and a refreshing point of view.

He said he would break from the norm and conduct his boxing business in an impeccable, professional manner.

Today he's a fighter on a losing streak with an increasingly haughty, self-centered tone who has a laundry list of litigation filed both for and against him.

He is, quite clearly, precisely the type of person he said he would never be.

Perhaps he doesn't realize it, but he has become his own worst enemy (or at least his former self's worst enemy).

The smile is still golden but there's an arrogance to De La Hoya that wasn't always present. Consider, for instance, his comments on a recent Geraldo Rivera show.

"Take me as an example and learn from me," he said pointedly to the show's Hispanic viewers. "I'm playing it smart. These kids in the neighborhood really look up to me; I've opened many doors."

His purpose on the Rivera show was to promote the release of his first compact disc, which is due in October. De La Hoya unabashedly gave the CD a glowing review.

"I sing beautifully," he said without a hint of modesty. "It's a beautiful, beautiful album."

We'll let some other critic gauge his vocal abilities, but this much can be said for De La Hoya the man: Not everyone is so infatuated with you. Just in the last few weeks he has "fired" his promoter, Bob Arum, although that is apt to be in court for years, and he appears to be ready to dismiss his trainer, Robert Alcazar.

His pristine posturing from 1992 aside, De La Hoya would like to add Arum and Alcazar to the following list of people he has fired since turning pro: managers Shelly Finkel, Robert Mittleman and Steve Nelson; trainers Emanuel Steward, Gil Clancy and Jesus Rivera; and business adviser Mike Hernandez.

He wants to replace Arum with Jerry Perenchio, the CEO of the Univision television network. With Arum maintaining he has an ironclad contract with De La Hoya, Perenchio will be the target of an additional lawsuit to be filed in federal court in Los Angeles. The old "tortuous interference" line that Arum has used so often in earlier boxing-related litigation is sure to be heard again now that Perenchio has entered the fray.

As for De La Hoya's boxing career, it's on hold although he told Rivera he would fight again.

"There's still some fight game in me," he said. "In the next few months I'll go back to my other passion, which is boxing."

We can hardly wait. The man has lost two fights in the past year and would likely lose the rematches to Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley were they to fight again.

And that's another thing the earlier incarnation of De La Hoya said he never would do: lose, or stay in boxing too long. Right now he's doing both.

He may not recognize it, but De La Hoya has become just another pug and an obnoxious one at that.

Yet give him his due for being clever. "You have to be nice," he said to Rivera, referring to keeping a polished image in spite of a bevy of boxing and paternity suits. "You have to keep smiling."

The honor he sought to bring to the sport in 1992 is long gone.