BARCELONA '92 OLYMPICS / DAY 6 : Energized De La Hoya Turns On Power : Boxing: East L.A. lightweight is cut early, but dominates bout and wins when referee stops it with seven seconds left.

By EARL GUSTKEY

July 31, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BADALONA, Spain — Oscar De La Hoya, in the most impressive performance of his amateur career, knocked a strong but overmatched Brazilian all over the ring Thursday night in the East Los Angeles lightweight’s Olympic debut.

De La Hoya, criticized by some at the Olympic trials in June for a slow-paced, conservative style, came out against Adilson Silva with guns blazing. Polish referee Ryszard Redo eventually stopped the bout with seven seconds remaining when De La Hoya was hitting Silva with uppercuts at will.

It was the most impressive performance yet by a U.S. boxer here, but after De La Hoya had won, light-welterweight Vernon Forrest lost a 14-8 decision to Britain’s Peter Richardson, putting the U.S. record at 8-2.

De La Hoya, 19, a Garfield High graduate, snapped Silva’s head back repeatedly with powerful, stinging left jabs, folded him in half with wicked left hooks to the ribs and stunned him often with uppercuts to the chin.

De La Hoya scored his rousing victory before the largest crowd yet at the Joventut Pavilion--about 2,000. And 10 of the spectators were family members and friends of De La Hoya, who occupied a balcony section behind their long, white banner:

“Good Luck Oscar--We Love You!”

De La Hoya, who has dedicated his pursuit of a gold medal to his mother, who died in 1990, put himself in the second round of the preliminaries. He next will meet Moses Odion of Nigeria on Saturday.

Shortly after De La Hoya’s bout, Cuban Julio Gonzalez was upset on a 14-12 decision by Bulgarian Dimitrov Tontchev. Tontchev, then, looms as a possible semifinal foe for De La Hoya.

In the top half of the 132-pound bracket, the boxer who beat De La Hoya at the World Championships in Sydney last November, German Marco Rudolph, looked like a medal-round athlete in defeating Romanian Vasile Nistor, 10-5.

Thursday night was the end of a long wait for the De La Hoya clan, but despite their fighter’s one-sided victory, they had some anxious moments.

Early in the second round, De La Hoya was cut beneath his left eye. The cut bled freely the rest of the way and was inspected by a doctor in the third round.

Later, the boxer said it amounted to more blood than cut.

De La Hoya, who outboxes experienced pros at the Brooklyn Gym in Boyle Heights, looked like a world-class pro himself Thursday. And he seemed to be delivering a message to the tournament’s lightweights.

At the Olympic trials, he said of the conservative, jab-dominant style he employed: “I’m being very careful here. The idea is to make sure I make the team. No one has seen the real Oscar. In Barcelona, they’ll see all my power.”

Everyone saw it, and Silva felt it.

De La Hoya stung the Brazilian with the first punch of the bout, a stiff left jab. Dozens more followed.

Then, with the suddenness of a thunderclap, De La Hoya put Silva flat on his back with a left hook 35 seconds into the bout.

After the standing-eight count, De La Hoya rushed his foe with a flurry of body shots but got caught himself on the chin by a desperation right hand by Silva. The punch briefly wobbled De La Hoya and caused him to back up a step.

By the end of the first round, though, De La Hoya had bloodied Silva’s nose. He was double- and triple-jabbing him. He snapped Silva’s head back with a left hook with 12 seconds to go.

The cut under De La Hoya’s eye appeared 10 seconds into the second round, but it did not faze him.

In fact, right after blood was sighted, he froze Silva with a left hook to the ribs and a right to the head. Then there was a triple hook to the ribs, sending the De La Hoya clan into a frenzy of flag waving and cheers.

By the end of the second, De La Hoya’s rapid-fire, powerful jabs were backing up Silva a step each time. De La Hoya, who had a 9-2 computer score lead after one round, was ahead, 15-3, after two.

Then with 2:17 left in the third, referee Redo summoned a ringside doctor to look at the cut, and the De La Hoyas held their breath.

But the doctor indicated to the referee that the bout could continue, and De La Hoya promptly clobbered Silva with a vicious left hook to the body. At the finish, De La Hoya led, 24-9.

“I said all along I would use all my power shots in the Olympics--I felt energized tonight, I felt great,” De La Hoya said.

He said the long wait to box here--the Olympic team arrived July 18--had primed him for battle.

“All this waiting, waiting . . . all the training,” he said. “I just wanted to hit somebody.”

Forrest--normally a classic, stand-up boxer--allowed himself to be drawn into his opponent’s slugging game. Richardson built up a lead over the first two rounds, then staggered to the final bell a winner.

The rallying Forrest had forced Algerian referee Nouredine Chergui to administer two standing-eight counts against Richardson in the last round. One more and the bout automatically would have been stopped, with Forrest the winner.

“I’m very disappointed, my dream is over,” Forrest said, still holding the two little U.S. flags he had left the ring with. “I waited 13 years . . . all the training, and this is it. It’s heartbreaking.”