BOXING: TAYLOR WIN LEAVES DIBELLA SATISFIED.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES Boxing

Jermain Taylor wasn't the happiest man in the ring July 16 when it was revealed he had won the undisputed middleweight championship with a split-decision victory over Bernard Hopkins at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

His promoter, Lou DiBella, was.

Watch the HBO preview show this week promoting Saturday's rematch at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. DiBella is standing with Taylor when the ring announcer says, ``And the new...''

DiBella's reaction was one of unconstrained bliss. One would have thought he had just won $100 million in the lottery. For him, it was that good.

``It ended a really ugly chapter for me,'' DiBella told the Daily News on Sunday. ``It allowed me to take a deep breath and say, 'I beat this guy in court, and now Jermain beat him in the ring.' There was some justice. I don't have the hate in my gut, I don't have the consuming anger that I had and I thank Jermain for that. ``Besides that being the happiest night in my career, there was a sense of relief that this was over.''

After a long appeal process that ended two weeks ago, DiBella has collected the more than $700,000 (which includes interest) he won from Hopkins in a libel suit he put on Hopkins in December 2001 for defamation of character.

DiBella, formerly an executive at HBO, promoted Hopkins on a handshake for three fights from December 2000 to September 2001. Their last fight together was Hopkins' 12th- round technical knockout of Felix Trinidad Jr. at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The two parted ways over money matters, but Hopkins later went on record with MaxBoxing.com and alleged DiBella had taken a $50,000 under-the-table payment from him in early 2000 while DiBella was still with HBO.

DiBella, however, was able to prove that the money he received from Hopkins was for future services that would be rendered once he left HBO and became a promoter. HBO executives backed DiBella, testifying that DiBella had told them of the money he had received from Hopkins.

``He tried to ruin my life,'' DiBella said. ``He lied about me. A court of his peers called him a liar.''

That's why DiBella reacted the way he did after Taylor's victory.

``I thought he (Taylor) won the fight, but I knew it was close and could have gone either way,'' DiBella said. ``I had no idea what the announcement was going to be. To me, for that particular fight, there was so much emotion tied into Hopkins. So, to be honest, I enjoyed his reaction, too.''

Hopkins wore a look of disbelief.

Taylor, 27, of Little Rock, Ark., is 24-0 with 17 knockouts. Hopkins, 40, of Philadelphia, is 46-3-1 with 32 knockouts.

--Vazquez-Larios: The rematch between Hopkins and Taylor is highly anticipated, both because many experts thought Hopkins won, and because both are tremendous fighters. But the undercard fight between Oscar Larios and Israel Vazquez could be the best of the night.

They will be squaring off for the third time, and it will be a super bantamweight title unification bout. Vazquez is the International Boxing Federation champion and Larios holds the World Boxing Council belt.

Vazquez knocked out Larios in the first round in April 1997 when Vazquez was 19 and Larios 20. But Larios stopped Vazquez in the 12th round in May 2002. Since Larios' victory came at a time when both fighters were well-established, it is looked upon by some as more impressive than Vazquez's win while the two were still so raw.

However, Vazquez wasn't trained by Freddie Roach until May 2003, a year after he lost to Larios in their rematch. That, Vazquez said, is only going to help him Saturday in the rubber match.

--Guerrero-Diaz: Fast-rising featherweight Robert ``The Ghost'' Guerrero will continue his quest for a world title when he takes on Gamaliel Diaz on Friday in the main event at Palace Indian Gaming Center in Lemoore. Showtime will televise the card, which is being promoted by Dan Goossen of Goossen Tutor Promotions in Sherman Oaks.

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