DE LA HOYA BORES HIS WAY TO VICTORY TITLE IN FIFTH WEIGHT CLASS COMES WITH LITTLE RESISTANCE.

Byline: Michael Rosenthal Assistant Sports Editor 

LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La Hoya won his championship in a record-tying fifth weight class. In every other sense, no one was a winner.

De La Hoya easily outpointed a pathetically overmatched Javier Castillejo to win the WBC junior middleweight title in front of 12,480 on Saturday at the MGM Grand but won no raves for a workmanlike performance unbecoming a great fighter. He couldn't have hurt Castillejo had the Spaniard had no arms.

Castillejo won no concessions that he even belonged in the ring with a fighter as talented as De La Hoya. He was tough but otherwise terrible.

And the biggest losers were the fans. The fight wasn't competitive and neither fighter was hurt, although Castillejo was put down with four seconds remaining in the fight as much from exhaustion as De La Hoya's left hand. Having trouble sleeping? Play a tape of this fight.

``I'm not disappointed at all,'' said De La Hoya (34-2, with 27 knockouts). ``I dominated the fight and I was able to knock him down. I felt strong. There's always room for improvement, though.''

De La Hoya was fighting for the first time at the 154-pound weight limit, which raised the question: Would he be able to hurt a fighter who has been at junior middleweight for nine years? The answer was a resounding ``no.''

From the opening bell it was clear Castillejo (51-5, 34 KOs) was in over his head: De La Hoya was much quicker and much better than the champion. The result was a one-sided beating not often seen at this level of boxing.

The three judges scored it the same, 119-108. And consider the fight stats: De La Hoya outlanded Castillejo 403-121 - a ridiculous 4-1 edge - and landed more than twice as many power punches - 218 to 92. In short, Castillejo could neither see nor do anything about De La Hoya's blows to the head and body and found it painfully difficult to hit his opponent even though De La Hoya stood in front of him much of the fight.

Many had to ask themselves: How did this guy become a world champion?

However, Castillejo, though embarrassed in one sense, always can be proud of one thing: De La Hoya couldn't knock him out. In fact, with the possible exception of the late knockdown, he never even fazed Castillejo - with 400 hard punches. Natural junior middleweights who actually know how to fight must have been encouraged by what they saw from De La Hoya.

De La Hoya found encouragement in the knockdown.

``I'm very satisfied,'' he said of the knockdown. ``I was fighting a big guy in my fifth weight class. Sometimes it's difficult to knock down heavier guys.''

De La Hoya also was pleased that he made history, at least in his eyes. Only he, Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns have won titles in five weight classes, although he and Hearns each won one title sanctioned by the marginal WBO, which bothers some and doesn't detract from the feat in the eyes of others.

Any way you look at it, that's heady company. And even if you dismiss the WBO championships, winning titles in four weight classes is an impressive accomplishment.

``I felt very proud,'' he said. ``It might look easy winning six titles. If it was, why isn't every fighter doing it?

What's next?

Ready or not, De La Hoya wants a ``megafight'' by the end of the year. WBC welterweight champ Shane Mosley, who handed De La Hoya one of his two defeats, might be available but said on Saturday he'd like to fight IBF titleholder Vernon Forrest to unify two belts.

Other possible big-name opponents - Felix Trinidad, the other fighter to beat De La Hoya, and Fernando Vargas - could be available next year.

< ``My plan has been to fight in November,'' De La Hoya said. ``Mosley, Vargas and Trinidad fight like between July and September. If they need time to rest, if they need any more training, if they don't want to fight until next year, I'd be willing t owai. I just know my next fight is going to be a big fight.''

Castillejo wasn't available for comments after the fight.

In preliminary bouts, Manny Pacquiao (33-2, 24 KOs) of the Phillipines scored a significant upset when he stopped Lehlo Ledwaba (33-2-1, 22 KOs) of South Africa 59 seconds into the sixth round to take Ledwaba's IBF junior featherweight championship.

Pacquiao, who took the fight on two weeks' notice when Enrique Sanchez was cut in training, put Ledwaba down three times - once in the second round and twice in the sixth. Hurt badly, Ledwaba, who had been described as an up-and-coming star, could not continue after the last knockdown.

Pacquiao, who trains under Freddie Roch in Hollywood, had held the WBC junior bantamweight title in 1998-99.

Agapito Sanchez (38-7-1, 20 KOs) of the Dominican Republic knocked out Jorge Pabon Monsalvo (29-2, 24 KOs) of Colombia with one right-handed punch to the temple at 1:28 of the seventh round to win the vacant WBO junior featherweight title.

Jose Navarro (5-0, one KO) defeated Salvador Rosales (2-1, one KO) in a four-round junior bantamweight bout; Jermain Taylor (4-0, two KOs) outpointed Marvin Smith (8-4-1, six KOs) in a four-round middleweight bout; and Michael Bennett (4-0, four KOs) stopped Donald Macon (6-4-1, three KOs) only 41 seconds into a scheduled four-round heavyweight bout.

Also, Guillermo Saputo Argentina, who is managed by De La Hoya, knocked out Sean Holley (4-8-1, one KO) at 2:21 of the second round of a scheduled four-round welterweight bout.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Oscar De La Hoya celebrates his decision over Javier Castillejo on Saturday.

(2) Oscar De La Hoya outlanded Javier Castillejo in punches 403-121 Saturday night.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News