De La Hoya’s Fight Is Big, but This Would Be Bigger

LAS VEGAS — If all of the world’s great boxing trainers, the Angelo Dundees, the Emanuel Stewards, the Eddie Futches, had come to Big Bear within the last three months and praised Oscar De La Hoya for his preparation for Saturday night’s welterweight title fight against Felix Trinidad, that would have meant a lot. But it wouldn’t have meant as much to De La Hoya’s trainer, Robert Alcazar, as when he heard it from Joel De La Hoya.

“For the very first time I would say in some 10 years, Mr. De La Hoya came to me and said, ‘I like what I see,’ ” Alcazar said Wednesday.

It was a proud moment.

For Alcazar.

As for Oscar, well, he said Wednesday that he knew about his father’s conversation with Alcazar.

“I believe I read it in the newspaper,” De La Hoya said.

He paused, long enough to allow the reporters he was addressing to see the hurt in his eyes, and added, “I don’t want to read it. I want to hear it.”

De La Hoya, 26, has won an Olympic gold medal, world titles at four weights and 31 professional fights without a defeat. Yet he once said that he would trade it all for praise from his father.

But his father, who, like his father before him, was a professional fighter, withholds it. That is his way of letting the son who has so much--money, fame, the TV star girlfriend--know that he doesn’t have everything yet.

“Really, all Mr. De La Hoya wants is the best for his son,” Alcazar said. “He told me, ‘I have to keep working and pushing him to do better. That way, he has some motivation left, to keep doing things better.’ ”

Oscar understands and he doesn’t understand.

Asked Wednesday if a compliment from his father was that important to him, he said, “Why not? That would be nice. Once.”

*

To paraphrase an old line, tell me a story about a father who trains his son in boxing and I’ll write you a tragedy.

Jimmy Garcia’s father was too proud to throw in the towel from the corner when his son was taking a beating from Gabriel Ruelas and Jimmy died. Roy Jones Jr. and his father, by all accounts an excellent trainer, don’t speak now, much less work together. Jones Sr. lives in a trailer home, refusing to accept his son’s financial offerings.

“In this history of boxing, it hasn’t been good,” Gil Clancy, who advises Alcazar, said of father-son working relationships. “But [Felix] Trinidad’s father seems to have done a wonderful job with his kid.”

Even that partnership, the one between Felix Sr. and Felix Jr., has been strained at times, such as when Trinidad’s promoter, Don King, introduced Felix Sr. to a woman, resulting in him leaving Felix Jr.’s mother.

Although Joel De La Hoya hasn’t officially trained his son since he was an amateur, he is always at ringside. On those rare occasions when Oscar finds himself in trouble, he looks to his father first for advice, then to his corner.

One of those occasions came in February against Ike Quartey. De La Hoya persevered, this time with a 12th-round barrage of lefts and rights that secured the victory and, some said, defined him as a truly great fighter.

Not Joel.

“One thing about my father, he knows I’m a great fighter,” De La Hoya said. “But he won’t say I’m the best. He’s a Mexican father--big ego. He won’t tell me. One day, he will.”

Maybe Saturday?

“I think so,” De La Hoya said. “I hope so.”

*

I found Joel standing in the back of a ballroom at the new Paris Las Vegas hotel during a news conference Wednesday, looking bored as the Trinidads predicted a sixth-round knockout.

“Those Puerto Ricans like to talk,” he said.

No one will ever accuse him of that. Asked how he thought the fight might go, he said, “It’s even.”

He added, almost apologetically, “I’m not Trinidad.”

I asked him about his comments to Alcazar during the Big Bear training camp.

“Oscar is 100%,” he said. “I’ve never seen him better than 70%.”

“Are you proud of Oscar?” I asked.

“He’s my son,” he said. “I’m proud of all three of my sons.”

“Oscar believes you might tell him that if he beats Trinidad,” I said.

He shrugged.

“There are bigger purses and bigger fights ahead,” he said.

“Will you ever tell him?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” he said. “When he retires, we’ll hug and cry and laugh and I’ll tell him. I’ll tell him, ‘You won a gold medal and all those titles. You were the greatest.’ ”

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected]