FIERCE DE LA HOYA MERCILESS IN KO WIN GATTI BATTERED, BLOODIED IN BRUTAL LOSS.

Byline: Michael Rosenthal Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS - Arturo Gatti was led to slaughter and, as expected, he went willingly.

Oscar De La Hoya turned his courageous, but grossly overmatched opponent into a bloody, helpless mess to win a scheduled 12-round welterweight fight - his comeback fight - by a fifth-round knockout on Saturday night at the MGM Grand.

A near-sellout crowd of 12,692 was thrilled by the terrible beating Gatti endured and the fact he landed plenty of his own punches in a fast-paced, entertaining fight.

However, it didn't prove much.

De La Hoya (33-2, with 28 knockouts) had hoped to show some of what he's learned under new trainer Floyd Mayweather Jr. Instead, he showed how cruelly brutal a mismatch against a 30-1 underdog can become.

``Everybody in the boxing world knows how tough this guy is,'' said De La Hoya, who hadn't fought since he was outpointed by Shane Mosley in June.

``I could've done better but I've only worked 2 1/2 months with Floyd Mayweather. I showed a little of what I've learned but there's a lot to learn yet.''

Gatti (33-5, 27 KOs) was carefully chosen as De La Hoya's opponent in part because he's a tough guy. In the end, he was too tough for his own good.

De La Hoya put down and hurt Gatti with a left to the jaw with 11 seconds remaining in the first round - cutting him badly below his right eye in the process - and controlled the rest of the fight.

Gatti, as he has throughout his admirable career, never stopped throwing punches and landed his share even though he bled profusely from the cut and his eyes became swollen. However, two things became clear quickly: He couldn't hurt the bigger, stronger De La Hoya, he couldn't cope with De la Hoya's speed and his aggressive style would ultimately lead to his demise.

In other words, he became De La Hoya's personal punching bag even after the winner's nine-month layoff.

De La Hoya hurt the former junior lightweight champion again near the end of the fourth round with a flurry of punches Gatti couldn't seem to see and finally ended it the following round.

He fired off a dozen or more unanswered punches as Gatti lay against the ropes when his longtime and merciful trainer, Pat Lynch, had seen enough and threw in the towel at 1:16 of the round. Gatti, who doesn't know how to quit, protested but everyone else in the building knew it was the right decision.

De La Hoya landed a remarkable 68 percent of his power punches (130 of 191), an indication of how easy he was able to hit Gatti and why the crowd ate it up. He landed an almost unbelievable 24 of 26 power punches in the final round.

Overall, he landed 62 percent of his punches (195 of 313) to Gatti's 28 percent (87 of 308).

``I fought my heart out,'' said Gatti, who went immediately to the hospital to have his cut stitched. ``That's all I could do. He had faster hands than I expected. I could have kept going, but I have respect for my corner's judgment.''

De La Hoya's next fight could be just as one-sided.

He has signed to face WBC junior middleweight champion Javier Castillejo of Spain on June 9 in the next step toward what he hopes will be rematches with Mosley and Felix Trinidad.

Castillejo is good and De La Hoya will be moving up from 147 pounds to 154 to face him. However, like Gatti, Castillejo has nowhere near the ability of De La Hoya.

In effect, it will be just another opportunity to practice what he learns from Mayweather.

``I can't wait,'' an excited De La Hoya said when asked about the potential rematches. ``I have to build my stamina back up, though, build my (ring) intelligence back up.

``After that, we'll meet one of the big boys.''

In preliminary bouts, IBF cruiserweight champion Vassiliy Jirov (28-0, 26 KOs) made a joke of opponent Terry McGroom (19-3-2, 10 KOs), stopping the Arkansas fighter with one punch to the stomach 1:22 into a scheduled 12-round bout.

Jirov, from Kazakhstan, wants to fight light heavyweight champ Roy Jones Jr.

``Everybody knows I want a fight and that is Roy Jones Jr.,'' Jirov said. ``Let him be a man and show some heart and fight a real champion.

``I am willing to fight him anytime.''

Former IBF junior welterweight champion Rafael Pineda, 35, pulled off a significant upset, knocking out perennial contender Oba Carr at 2:46 of the sixth round of a scheduled 10-round welterweight bout.

Pineda (35-3, 29 KOs) knocked down Carr (52-4-1, 31 KOs) three times in the final round.

``I cannot believe that I just lost to his guy,'' Carr said. ``I felt fine going in and I did not underestimate him. For some reason, I felt sluggish. I could tell my rhythm was off in the first round.

``He caught me with an uppercut while I was trying to throw a right hand (before the first knockdown). I thought I was all right, but then he caught me again. I hope they will let me fight this guy again.''

And two 2000 U.S. Olympians won fights.

Jose Navarro (2-0) of Los Angeles defeated Antonio Perez (5-5-1, two KOs) of Pasadena by a unanimous decision in a six-round junior bantamweight bout. Ricardo Williams (2-0), a silver medalist in Sydney, did the same to Joe Bullock (4-1, one KO) in a four-round junior welterweight bout.

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Photo: Arturo Gatti, left, takes one of the numerous shots delivered by Oscar De La Hoya during their fight Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News