No Cutting De La Hoya Off at El Paso

They came in cars and trucks, on foot and by bicycle, young and old, men and women, Latino and Anglo, in nice suits and dirty work clothes and sweat-soaked athletic gear.

They brought their video cameras and still cameras, their pens and posters and banners.

Well before Oscar De La Hoya was scheduled to arrive, they had filled the parking lot of the Carolina Community Center, cars parked every which way until some appeared to have been simply abandoned in the middle of incoming traffic, the owners seemingly fearful of missing the excitement.

Inside, they packed the bleachers and spilled out on the basketball court, about 1,000 strong in a building that normally holds 500, staking out their territory in the hope that they could get a glimpse, a smile, a wink, or--dare they even dream?--a handshake or a kiss from the World Boxing Council welterweight champion.

It was Wednesday night in El Paso, a work night, a school night. But it would have been hard to tell that from looking at the crowd at the Carolina center. It seemed like Cinco De Mayo, as if much of El Paso and part of neighboring Juarez, Mexico, had turned out.

But turned out for what? De La Hoya’s title defense against Patrick Charpentier of France? No, that won’t happen until Saturday.

This crowd had turned out for a De La Hoya workout.

And a secret workout at that.

Secret? President Clinton had more chance of moving about without notice in this town of about 600,000 than De La Hoya. His every move has been closely monitored since his arrival Tuesday, especially by the female population.

He had originally been scheduled to hold an outdoor workout in Cohen Stadium. But rain washed out that plan. So the Carolina Community Center, where a permanent ring is set up, was substituted Wednesday afternoon. Secrecy was crucial because of the small space available.

But as long as the town’s phone system was working, De La Hoya had no chance of going undetected.

That should have come as no surprise. He had earlier decided to do his road work unannounced at Burgess High at 7:30 a.m. Somebody announced it because 300 people showed up to scream and cheer and squeal as De La Hoya jogged by.

Fred Albers of local television station KTSM said that De La Hoya’s effect on El Paso, especially on the females of the city, is without precedent.

The Dallas Cowboys drew 50,000 here for a summer scrimmage, but, said Albers, even if quarterback Troy Aikman had walked into the Carolina Community Center, he couldn’t have elicited the reaction that De La Hoya did.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. This is beyond boxing. This is like lust,” said Albers, pointing to the female fans who were yelling and screaming and waving as De La Hoya sparred a few rounds in the Carolina ring. “If Aikman were here, you wouldn’t see this kind of passion.”

That passion has been backed up with dollars. Already more than 50,000 seats have been sold for Saturday night’s De La Hoya-Charpentier bout at the Sun Bowl.

About 7,000 additional seats have now been put on sale. Those seats will only allow the occupants to view the fight on a big screen because of an obstructed view. No matter. The additional seats are also expected to go quickly.

So for those who want to know what in the world De La Hoya is doing in El Paso when he could be fighting in the bright lights of Las Vegas or Atlantic City or in New York in the bright glare of the media spotlight, the answer is, filling seats and turning a non-event into a memorable spectacular.

Few if any, outside of France perhaps, will spend this week debating the chances of Charpentier (27-4-1, 23 knockouts) against De La Hoya (27-0, 22 knockouts). That’s because it is conceded by almost all boxing experts that Charpentier doesn’t have a chance.

But now, promoter Bob Arum has made something out of a nothing fight by putting it in the Sun Bowl, where it will be staged in front of the largest crowd to watch a boxing match in the United States since 71,000 came to the New Orleans Superdome in 1978 to watch Muhammad Ali fight Leon Spinks.

And this might be only the beginning of the Oscar tour. Arum has discussed the possibility of staging a De La Hoya fight in the new Staples Center in Los Angeles when it opens in the fall of 1999, perhaps as the first event to be held there. Arum is scheduled to meet with city officials from Dallas on Saturday morning about De La Hoya fighting in that city. And Arum is also exploring the idea of a De La Hoya fight in Mexico City.

But what about Las Vegas, the fight capital of the world until a year ago?

It’s still a contender for big fights, but a more cautious contender since last June when the second Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson fight ended in a riot at the MGM Grand that left both hotel operators and their high-roller customers wary about inviting fight crowds onto the premises.

As a result, the new strategy seems to be to hold major fights at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, thus keeping the unruly fight fans away from the casinos. That was the strategy for last fall’s Holyfield-Michael Moorer fight, and the Thomas & Mack Center will again be used in September when De La Hoya, should he beat Charpentier as expected, faces Julio Cesar Chavez, who must also first win a tuneup fight.

So don’t think Las Vegas, where the site fees are huge and the expensive seats can be sold, is going out of the boxing business.

“You would still hold the real biggies in Las Vegas,” Arum said. “But everything else can be held in places like this. Oscar has blown this town away. It is as simple as that. You can’t charge $1,000 a seat here like you could in Las Vegas. But you make up for that by selling so many more seats [priced from $350 down to $25.]. Holding a fight here like this also helps revive boxing and creates more interest in Oscar for future pay-per-view shows.”

But none of this would be possible were it not for someone like De La Hoya, who can create excitement in a place like El Paso by merely showing up.

“This is great for boxing,” said Rich Rose, the former president of sports operations for Caesars Palace and now a consultant for Arum’s Top Rank organization. “Boxing needs a stage.

“Just like the World Series is more than just a baseball game and Wimbledon is more than just a tennis tournament, this is going to be more than just a boxing match.

“The fact that Oscar can attract all these women is great. I don’t know any other athlete who can do this. These crowds are the kind you see with a Brad Pitt or a Mick Jagger or even Frank Sinatra when he was king. Forget about boxing. This doesn’t happen in any sport.”

Prefight hype? In El Paso this week, it’s pretty hard, even for boxing people, to exaggerate the excitement.

Just ask anyone at the Carolina Community Center on Wednesday night.

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Fight at a Glance

* Who: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Patrick Charpentier.

* When: Saturday.

* Where: Sun Bowl, El Paso.

* TV: HBO, 7 PDT.

* At stake: De La Hoya’s World Boxing Council welterweight title.

* Records: De La Hoya 27-0, 22 knockouts; Charpentier 27-4-1, 23 knockouts.