Oscar’s Statement Is a Powerful One

SAN ANTONIO — Oscar De La Hoya got the crackle back Saturday night, displaying for the first time in a year what has always been his most valuable and violent boxing asset:

Star power.

Against a made-to-order opponent, before a crowd thirsting for a knockout, De La Hoya did not dally on his way to retaining his World Boxing Council welterweight title in a second-round knockout victory over David Kamau before 11,500 at the Alamodome.

After a measured opening round, the second-round bell rang, then De La Hoya focused in on the foe and started firing.

“When he gets those eyes looking that fierce, I know it’s going to be over soon,” said Emanuel Steward, hired as De La Hoya’s lead trainer two months ago to heighten the fighter’s offensive skills.

“That’s all I want to do--unleash that in him again. That’s what you saw tonight.”

Opening up the arsenal early, De La Hoya (25-0, 21 knockouts) dropped Kamau--and hints about the way this fight would end--in the first moments of the second round with a short right that snapped Kamau’s head back.

Then a few minutes later, as De La Hoya moved inside Kamau’s reaching jab, he absorbed some glancing rights, then landed two fast left hooks and a short right that sent the challenger to the floor again, leaving him dazed, knees on the canvas and eyes staring blankly.

After Kamau (28-2) tried and failed to get to his feet in the middle of the ring, referee Laurence Cole counted him out with six seconds remaining in the second round.

“I’m back,” said De La Hoya, who had gone his longest stretch--a year--without recording a knockout. “I’ve got the power. The power is back.”

Throughout the buildup for this fight, De La Hoya had predicted that he would knock out Kamau, who had been less than active over the past two years, but had gone 29 fights without being either knocked down or out.

His only other loss was a tight decision at the hands of Julio Cesar Chavez in 1995.

De La Hoya replaced former trainer Jesus Rivero for Steward because his handlers believed that Rivero’s defensive teachings had led to non-knockouts against Miguel Angel Gonzalez in January and Pernell Whitaker in April as De La Hoya moved up from lightweight to junior-welterweight (Gonzalez) to welterweight (Whitaker).

Also, De La Hoya’s last knockout victim, Chavez last June, never hit the canvas, and lost by technical knockout when the ringside doctor ruled that he could no longer continue because of a deep cut.

“I told him he was crazy to predict a knockout against this guy--this big guy, this guy who’s never been down before,” Steward said. “He just hired me, this big-name trainer, and that’s putting all this pressure to get something you might not be able to get.

“I think I felt even more pressure than he felt to get the knockout. Last night, I was a nervous wreck.

“I even told him in the locker room before the fight he was crazy. And he told me, ‘I don’t say anything I can’t back up.’ ”

He backed it up Saturday, with an opponent perfectly suited for it.

Said Kamau: “He caught me off-guard with the left hook. He’s strong, he’s fast, he’s quick.”

Kamau said he was looking to score a quick knockout, and seemed to dictate the pace in the first round with a long left jab that flicked at De La Hoya’s left eye enough to raise a minor welt.

“In the first round, I was trying to be more cautious, more careful,” De La Hoya said. “And he was sticking that jab, so I couldn’t get into him. But in the second round, I thought to myself, if I can get in and crowd him up, he really can’t do anything to me inside.

“I was having a good time exchanging with him, and I knew eventually I was going to land a good punch and drop him.”

Said Steward: “When Kamau would hit him, he fired back with so much power. Kamau never saw what was coming. Oscar’s speed is what won this fight.”

Next up for De La Hoya is a Sept. 13 date against Hector Camacho, who has also never been knocked out and who was on hand Saturday to pronounce himself ready to knock De La Hoya out.

But with De La Hoya eagerly embracing the knockout philosophy that was a big part of his early success, Steward said the Kamau fight was only the beginning.

“I think Camacho’s going to be a much easier fight than people think,” Steward said.

Notes

After the bout, promoter Bob Arum, who said he thought he would sell 20,000 tickets, said he wasn’t disappointed by the much smaller turnout and said it was no indication of De La Hoya’s drawing power. Arum blamed himself for pricing the tickets too high--the cheapest was $50--and said he would gladly bring De La Hoya back to San Antonio.