DE LA HOYA HOLDS UP HIS END OF IT.

Byline: Doug Krikorian

Oscar De La Hoya promised before Saturday night's engagement with Oba Carr that he was going back to being the Oscar De La Hoya he was before his promoter, Bob Arum, began bringing in trainers like Emanuel Steward, Jesus Rivero and Gil Clancy to work with him.

You might recall that Oscar De La Hoya earlier in his career aggressively pursued opponents, seldom danced and usually wound up with spectacular knockouts.

Well, that version of Oscar De La Hoya made a stirring return to old form before 11,528 fans at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on the way to a violent knockout of Oba Carr at the 55-second mark of the 11th round.

Carr was expected to be nothing more than a forgotten footnote in De La Hoya's Sept. 18 date of destiny against the world's other undefeated welterweight, Felix Trinidad and, oh, was he!

From the first round, this was a different Oscar De La Hoya than the cautious one of recent vintage who so often showed moments of timidity against the likes of Ike Quartey, Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez.

This Oscar De La Hoya wore an evil scowl on his face from the opening moments when he relentlessly went after Carr with a barrage of left hooks, one of which sent Carr careening haplessly to the mat.

This Oscar De La Hoya never stopped shadowing his quarry, pounding Carr round after round in a competitively one-sided fight in which De La Hoya's superior power and quickness proved to be simply too much for his game Detroit opponent.

This Oscar De La Hoya never let adversity affect him in any manner whatsoever, even when he seriously sprained his left hand bad enough in the second round that afterward he had it X-rayed at a local hospital, even when a butt by Carr opened a cut on his left cheek in the seventh and even when Carr drilled him with a low punch in the same round (infractions that referee Richard Steele deducted two points from Carr's scoring).

This Oscar De La Hoya showed overwhelmingly that he's now in the prime of his fistic skills and that he figures to be ready for the greatest challenge of his life Felix Trinidad.

Indeed, the oddsmaker at the Hilton Hotel, Art Manteris, has opened the De La Hoya-Trinidad fight as 6-5 and pick-it, a line that figures to change quickly in the wake of De La Hoya's impressive performance against Carr.

It figures De La Hoya's followers soon will make their hero the betting favorite, especially after the way he beat up Carr, a tough gentleman who was thoroughly dominated by De La Hoya.

Of course, Trinidad also dominated Carr stopping him in eight rounds and he did it four years ago when Carr probably possessed greater skills.

Still, Oscar De La Hoya made good on his vow and was a commanding presence on a historic evening this was the first fight show at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in front of a lively crowd that included such celebrities as Al Pacino, Kevin Costner, Sean Penn, L.L. Cool J, Dr. Dre, James Brown, Jim Brown, Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson and countless others.

He flashed nifty footwork, a stinging left jab, and a devastating left hook that stunned Carr several times, and hurt him so badly in the 11th that Steele wisely decided to halt the proceedings.

Carr did manage to land a few right hands, but they never bothered De La Hoya, who I had winning nine of the rounds before Steele stopped it.

When asked afterward who was the tougher foe, De La Hoya or Trinidad, Carr took a most diplomatic stance.

``They're both extraordinary fighters,'' he said.

Indeed, they are and both are going to be extraordinarily wealthy when they finally resolve their differences.

If De La Hoya seemed unusually motivated against Carr, it was quite understandable.

The guy stood to blow a cool a ton of money he's in for a percentage of the pay per view gate against Trinidad had he lost to Carr.

There is no doubt that that De La Hoya-Trinidad is the biggest non-heavyweight match in boxing since April of 1987 when Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler settled their differences at Caesars Place.

``We'll make $12 million from the live gate,'' says Arum, who is pricing the tickets between $1,500 and $300. ``Oscar can make as much as $20 million against Trinidad.''

If Oscar De La Hoya continues to fight in the passionate manner he did against Oba Carr, he figures to earn a lot more in upcoming years.