De La Hoya Takes His Jab Within a Bout of Barcelona

WORCESTER, Mass. —  He is close enough to taste it, after 13 years.

That’s how Oscar De La Hoya put it after a masterful demonstration of Olympic-style boxing put him one victory away from the 1992 U.S. Olympic team Sunday afternoon.

The tall, graceful lightweight from East Los Angeles rolled to a dominating decision over Anthony Christodoulou of Syracuse almost entirely on the strength of an unerring left jab.

By winning the Olympic trials championship, De La Hoya goes to Phoenix for the June 26-28 Olympic team boxoffs to face Patrice Brooks of St. Louis, chosen Sunday as his “most noteworthy opponent.”

Brooks will be a longshot. He lost at the trials in the preliminary bouts to Lupe Suazo, whom De La Hoya defeated in the semifinals. Also, Brooks is 0-2 against De La Hoya.

De La Hoya was one of six trials winners Sunday before about 2,000 in the Centrum.

Most impressive was light-middleweight Raul Marquez of Houston, whose jab was even better than De La Hoya’s. A powerful puncher, Marquez clobbered an overmatched but brave Antwun Echols of Davenport, Iowa, 71-18.

Super-heavyweight Larry Donald of Cincinnati, also sporting a strong left jab, cruised to a 53-19 victory over Tyrone Campbell of Houston.

World champion 139-pounder Vernon Forrest won a 39-31 verdict over Steve Johnston of Colorado Springs, and featherweight Julian Wheeler of the Navy, in a hotly disputed decision, got a 35-20 victory over Ivan Robinson of Philadelphia.

Tim Austin of Cincinnati, a 1991 national champion at 112 pounds, weighed in at only 110 Sunday at 7 a.m. So he ate a breakfast of steak and eggs, hash browns, two waffles and two glasses of milk. Thus fortified, he knocked Aristead Clayton of Baker, La., all over the ring to win a 78-45 decision.

For the Phoenix boxoffs, Austin, Wheeler, Forrest and Marquez drew the boxers they defeated Sunday as their “most noteworthy challengers.” Donald drew Edward Escobedo of McKinney, Tex., whom he decisioned, 37-10, in the semifinals.

There was some concern among Olympic team coaches that De La Hoya had slipped a bit in the trials, following his first two winning--but not terribly impressive--performances. And he was distinctly unimpressive in the first rounds in his two bouts.

But on Sunday, he broke quickly, shifted into cruise control and stayed there. At one point in the third round, De La Hoya speared Christodoulou with 18 out of 21 jabs, snapping his head back with many.

There were occasional flurries to Christodoulou’s body and sometimes straight following rights to the head, but De La Hoya basically controlled the match with his busy jab.

“With electronic scoring, it’s the surest way to win,” he said. “(When) you snap a guy’s head back with a jab, all five judges see it. It’s the key to winning amateur bouts, especially in the U.S. A lot of the guys here are not experienced enough to know that.”

He said he will unveil his power stroke in Spain.

“You haven’t seen the real Oscar yet,” he said. “Foreign judges want to see power shots, so I’ll make them happy at the Olympics. The key for me here was to use the jab and make the team.

“It’s been 13 years working for this, and I can almost taste it. Now I’m only five or six matches away from that gold medal.”

De La Hoya’s performance Sunday sold Joe Byrd, the Olympic team head coach.

“If Oscar stays healthy, he’s a shoo-in for a gold medal,” Byrd said. “He’s a very smart boxer. He knows just what it takes to beat any opponent. His jab was outstanding today.”

Byrd, USA Boxing national Coach Pat Nappi and federation President Billy Dove all seemed enthusiastic.

“Overall, I’m very happy with what I’ve seen,” Byrd said. “If this is the group we take to Barcelona, they’ll do very well. Based on what I saw here, I like our medal chances from 106 pounds to 165 and at super-heavyweight.”

Said Nappi, who coached the 1976 and 1984 Olympic teams that won 13 golds:

“This group has as much talent as any of those teams. These kids can win, believe me.”

Dove: “So much depends on the draw (at Barcelona), but if we get a decent draw, I’m very upbeat about our medal prospects.”

After five days of the 96-boxer tournament, it seemed that the smallest and tallest of the trials winners seemed best positioned to take advantage of computerized scoring, which will make its Olympic debut in Barcelona.

Eric Griffin, the 5-foot-2 world champion 106-pounder, has a style to take advantage of computer scoring. He throws one punch at a time, lands most of them and judges easily see his blows.

Larry Donald, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound super-heavyweight, is in constant motion and has a very effective and highly visible left jab.