Oscar Shows Off His Garden Tools

NEW YORK —  Derrell Coley was right about one thing. He did train for only six rounds.

Coley, after announcing that’s all he needed to knock out Oscar De La Hoya, instead went down himself at the end of the seventh round and stayed down, choosing to quit Saturday night in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd of 13,814.

Coming off a loss by decision to Felix Trinidad last September, De La Hoya had vowed to turn from boxer to slugger, to give up the dancing, backpedaling style that had cost him the crucial points in the Trinidad fight.

“This is only the beginning,” said De La Hoya after improving to 32-1 with 26 knockouts. “I have said I will have four fights this year and will get four knockouts. With all due respect to Derrell Coley, he was the first.”

Of course beating Coley, who is 34-2-2 record with 24 knockouts but has amassed that record against a questionable list of opponents, is one thing. Beating a Trinidad or a Shane Mosley is quite another.

Other than a delivering a solid right hand in the fourth round that appeared to stun De La Hoya, Coley did little to stay competitive.

Gone was the bold front he had put up all week, the announcement of plans for a victory party late Saturday night. Instead, Coley came out looking tight and tentative and he never loosened up with the exception of his flurry of punches in the fourth.

“I think I hurt him,” Coley said, “but I didn’t have enough to take him out. I burned out. I couldn’t follow up the attack. That’s inexperience.”

Instead De La Hoya answered with a flurry of his own and Coley was not heard from again.

“I was never hurt,” De La Hoya insisted. “I was 100% in control of the fight.”

In the seventh, De La Hoya landed a solid left hook to Coley’s belly. The Maryland fighter doubled over and went down on one knee.

As referee Wayne Kelly began to count, Coley’s second knee went to the canvas and then he rolled over.

His right eye was swollen shut, he couldn’t catch his breath and he knew that his chances of catching De La Hoya with a punch were remote.

So he stayed down.

“I have a family,” Coley said. “I thought about my family. I didn’t think it was worth it.”

Coley allowed the count to run out as the seventh round ran out.

Saturday’s fight was the culmination of a yearlong struggle for Coley, rated the World Boxing Council’s No. 1 welterweight contender, to get either De La Hoya or Trinidad in the ring. That struggle ended in less than a hour, but Coley said he has no regrets.

“I lost, but, deep down, I really won,” he said. “I got to face one of the best fighters in the world. . . . He is a great champion. Oscar De La Hoya was the better man tonight. I was impressed with everything he did. That was a very high-level boxer I was in there with. Not being on that level myself hurt me.”

Said De La Hoya: “The fighter you saw tonight is who I am. I am not going to [just] box anybody. I will still fight smart, of course. But I will let my opponents adjust to my style. It is not up to me to adjust to their style.”

In winning, De La Hoya becomes the welterweight champion of the lightly regarded International Boxing Assn. He will again become the WBC welterweight titleholder, regaining the crown he lost to Trinidad, if Trinidad moves up to 154 pounds as he said he will do.

But none of that really matters. De La Hoya says he may not even pay sanctioning fees anymore to the boxing organizations.

It’s no longer about what De La Hoya is fighting for. It’s about who he is fighting. It’s about facing Trinidad and Mosley.

De La Hoya says he will meet both this year.

He probably will.

But be assured, it won’t be the same. Trinidad and Mosley will fight back.

In the semi-main event, Arturo Gatti, the former International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight champion, improved to 31-4 with 26 knockouts, by thoroughly dominating an overmatched Joey Gamache (55-4), knocking Gamache down three times before the fight was mercifully stopped 41 seconds into the second round of a scheduled 10-rounder.

Gatti put Gamache down twice in the first round and then unleashed another solid blow onto Gamache’s battered chin after the bell, a blow for which he was not penalized.

The second round was allowed to start even though Gamache still seemed wobbly and dazed.

But it didn’t last long. Gatti finished Gamache off with a right hand followed by a devastating triple combination that sent Gamache down, his head banging violently on the canvas. Referee Benjie Estaves had finally seen enough and stopped the bout.

Gamache was down for seven minutes before being helped to his corner.

In a preliminary bout, L.A. heavyweight Lamon Brewster improved his perfect mark to 23-0 with a unanimous 10-round decision over Richard Mason (23-9-1).

And in a women’s bout, Mia St. John (16-0, nine knockouts) had to rally to pull out a majority decision over Kristin Allan (3-1) in a four-round match.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Facts

Oscar De La Hoya improved his record to 32-1, with 26 knockouts. De La Hoya-Derrell Coley statistics, according to HBO:

PUNCHES

De La Hoya: 336

Coley: 246

LANDED

De La Hoya: 186

Coley: 77

LAND PCT.

De La Hoya: .645

Coley: .246