As Promoter, De La Hoya Plans for Future

With his stellar pro career winding down, Oscar De La Hoya is looking for other ways to stay in the fight game.

Now he will try promoting fighters instead of knocking them out.

Tonight De La Hoya, through his recently formed Golden Boy Promotions company, will have a six-fight card at the Olympic Auditorium.

The main event features World Boxing Council super bantamweight champion Oscar Larios (46-3-1) against Marcos Licona (19-2-1) in a 10-round, nontitle fight. Also scheduled to fight are Jose Navarro (13-0) and Carlos Madrigal (20-3) for the International Boxing Assn. continental junior bantamweight title.

“I have a solid promotional team,” said De La Hoya, which includes veteran boxing promoter Don Chargin. “We have the right tools be a force in boxing.

“This is not a short-term project. I’m treating this like it’s my future after boxing, and as the future of boxing as well.”

At a Tuesday news conference to promote the fights, De La Hoya, who holds the WBA super welterweight and WBC junior middleweight belts, said he will probably fight a couple of more years.

But he will jump ahead into promotion. Starting with two of tonight’s six fights, he will have monthly boxing events televised on HBO Latino, the cable network’s 24-hour Spanish-language channel.

Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Enterprises, said De La Hoya wanted to bring boxing back to Los Angeles, specifically to the Olympic Auditorium, where he won his first pro championship in 1994.

“It’s history,” Schaefer said. “His grandfather Vicente and his father Joel both fought there. It’s hosted some of the best Hispanic fighters ever.

“When we were looking to do this, we felt L.A. was the place because it’s where Oscar came from. And having it at the Olympic made the most sense.”

That was good news to Steve Needleman, president of the Olympic Auditorium, who is expecting between 4,500 and 5,000 people at the 7,500-seat arena.

“We’re not going to have the Olympic [fight nights] of the past. But this is an opportunity for a new type of boxing card,” Needleman said.