BOXING / EARL GUSTKEY : De La Hoya: Instant Wealth, Renown

Oscar De La Hoya, who turns pro tonight at the Forum, is about to become the most visible young American pro ever to come out of the Olympic Games.

Assuming that tonight he beats his first pro foe, Lamar Williams, here’s what De La Hoya’s co-managers, Bob Mittleman and Steve Nelson, have lined up for him:

--A Dec. 12 pay-per-view fight from Phoenix, on the Michael Carbajal show.

--A Jan. 3 ESPN card from Mexicali. This one is for “Abuelito,” De La Hoya’s grandfather, Vicente De La Hoya, who lives there. The 80-year-old former featherweight watched on television as his grandson became the only American boxing gold medalist at Barcelona last summer.

--A Feb. 6 ABC match in San Diego.

--A Feb. 23 bout in Corpus Christi, Tex.

--A possible March 13 bout at the Forum, possibly on the undercard of the long-awaited Carbajal-Humberto Gonzalez flyweight championship match.

Clearly, an ambitious first year is in the cards for the 19-year-old Garfield High graduate, who could be positioned for a world championship opportunity 18 months after winning his gold medal.

That means long training camps and short vacations.

“We’re looking at Oscar having 12 to 14 fights in his first pro year,” Mittleman said.

“At first, we thought in terms of a title shot after two years, but he looks so good to us in training now that we’re thinking we’ll get him his title shot as soon as we think he’s ready.”

Opinion: He’s ready, right now.

Remember, Leon Spinks fought for and won the heavyweight championship in his eighth pro fight.

Spinks had only 31 pro rounds under his belt when he outpointed Muhammad Ali in 1978, 18 months after winning an Olympic gold medal.

Already, De La Hoya has taken the measure of at least one pro champion in the training ring. He seems to have a decided edge whenever he spars with Genaro Hernandez of Los Angeles, the unbeaten WBA junior-lightweight champion who defended his title successfully for the third time Friday in Tokyo.

One decision has apparently already been made by De La Hoya, trainer Robert Alcazar and the co-managers: The junior-lightweight maximum of 130 pounds is no problem.

“He’s staying right on 132 to 133 pounds in training, and he tells us 130 would be no problem for him,” Mittleman said.

“So if a chance for a junior-lightweight title appears before a lightweight title shot, we’ll go for it.”

Mittleman said he would like De La Hoya to box a lot of quality rounds, but added that he won’t kick if De La Hoya knocks everyone over in Round 1.

“The opponents we’re looking for are good, tough fighters who know their way around the ring, who haven’t been stopped,” Mittleman said.

“We don’t want him fighting stiffs. That won’t do a thing for him. We want him learning the pro game. We want him challenged by his opponents.”

Lamar Williams, the Erie, Pa., boxer who is De La Hoya’s foe Monday, fits the prototype. His record is 6-2 and he says he has never been down.

“Oscar got a gold medal. He’s on top of the world,” he said. “So if I beat him, it’ll open a lot of doors for me.”

Cleaning out the Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield notebook:

--Insiders are saying we can forget about the new heavyweight champion meeting unbeaten Brit Lennox Lewis anytime soon.

“Rock Newman (Bowe’s manager) intends to avoid Lewis for as long as is humanly possible,” said one insider, asking not to be identified.

The World Boxing Council appears eager to strip Bowe of its slice of the heavyweight championship if Bowe doesn’t fight Lewis. Why? Simple. Lewis, as the WBC’s No. 1 contender, would be given the title, then WBC president-for-life Jose Sulaiman, a virtual partner of promoter Don King, would anoint Tony Tucker as the No. 1 challenger.

--Bowe-Holyfield pay-per-view numbers turned out better than expected, according to preliminary reports. The final numbers won’t be in for six weeks, but promoter Dan Duva said the fight did between 900,000 and 1 million households, or something like $35 million.

--Many were startled in Las Vegas to learn that the Nevada Athletic Commission held up Bowe’s $2.9-million purse because he hadn’t paid his sanction fees to the three major governing bodies.

Why should the Nevada commission care if Bowe chooses not to pay $90,000 each to the WBC, IBF and WBA? Why did the commission agree to act as a collection agent for the “alphabet bandits,” as many call the governing bodies?

Even more outrageous: Holyfield had to pay $150,000, $100,000 and $100,000 to the WBC, WBA and IBF.

“In retrospect, we should not have cared,” said Marc Ratner, acting executive officer for the Nevada commission. “What happens between the governing bodies and the boxers shouldn’t concern us. We’ll look at that one again.”

--Newman, who allegedly punched a ringside photographer in the minutes after Bowe won the fight, could be fined or suspended, according to the Nevada commission.

Commission member James Nave said Newman could be fined as much as $100,000. “I know we’re going to do something,” he said.

--The fight’s 10th round was as dramatic as any in the history of the sport, including the never-to-be-forgotten first round of Marvin Hagler vs. Thomas Hearns in 1985.

Holyfield, out on his feet in the round’s first minute, rallied furiously and had Bowe in serious trouble in the last minute, while an astonished crowd of 17,500 stood and cheered.

It was, in the only defeat of his pro career, Holyfield’s finest hour. In what many hope will be his last fight, Evander Holyfield left us with new meaning for the word courage.

Boxing Notes

Dan Goossen, just back from the WBC convention in Mexico City, says his lightweight, Rafael Ruelas, will be the WBC’s No. 1-ranked lightweight beginning Nov. 25. Goossen says he’s working on a Ruelas-Tony Lopez title match. And Rafael’s junior-lightweight brother, Gabe, is back in the picture for a shot at Azumah Nelson’s championship. Goossen said Nelson’s handlers in Ghana called his office, asking for videotapes of Gabe. “I sent them some videos of Gabe riding horses on his family’s ranch in Mexico,” Goossen said. He is hoping for a Gabe Ruelas-Nelson fight in Sydney, Australia, “no later than March.”

Remember Craig Payne, the rotund Detroit heavyweight who in 1983 shocked mighty Cuban Teofilo Stevenson in a major amateur boxing upset in Houston? Payne lost a 12-round pro decision recently to Pinklon Thomas in Greenville, S.C. Payne was the No. 2 amateur U.S. super-heavyweight in 1984, losing in the Olympic trials to eventual gold medalist Tyrell Biggs.

In his application for a promoter’s license, filed with the California Athletic Commission, Prime Ticket announcer Ruben Castillo wrote his goal: “To become the next Mexican Don King.” . . . John Chavez, the 17-1-1 featherweight who suffered torn retinas in both eyes in a recent Forum bout, is through as a boxer.