NO GUARANTEES FOR DE LA HOYA.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES Boxing

Sitting on the dais inside the Hollywood Theater at MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday, Oscar De La Hoya's smile suddenly turned upside down.

Was he leaving Bob Arum and Top Rank Inc. because Arum believes that De La Hoya's marketability as a fighter is in question for the first time?

``No, not at all, not at all,'' De La Hoya said. He went on to say that his company, Golden Boy Promotions, was all grown up and that he is ready to promote himself.

``I want to make one thing clear,'' De La Hoya said. ``Golden Boy Promotions will be my promoter. I can now say that I will no longer work with Top Rank. Bob Arum is a great guy, and we have made each other a lot of money.

``I have nothing bad to say about him. But Golden Boy Promotions will be on its own.''

Arum didn't have anything terribly bad to say about De La Hoya in an interview Sunday with the Daily News, but there weren't many positive vibrations, either.

The bottom line, Arum said, is that De La Hoya left Top Rank because Arum no longer would give De La Hoya the huge guaranteed purses De La Hoya was accustomed to receiving.

``I told Richard Schaefer that I was no longer going to guarantee, like I had been doing, any of Oscar's fights because of the erosion of Oscar's pay-per-view numbers,'' Arum said. Schaefer is CEO of Golden Boy Promotions.

``And that's because of the disappointment with Oscar's performance with Felix Sturm, when he came in out of shape. Also, there is the fact that so many people thought Oscar quit on (Bernard) Hopkins.

``Not that I'm saying that, but I'm sure you've heard that. There is just no basis to make any more guarantees.''

De La Hoya moved up to the middleweight division in June and won a narrow, if undeserving, decision over Sturm. He indeed was well out of shape and had a puffy face. De La Hoya then was knocked out by Hopkins in the ninth round with a liver punch last September.

De La Hoya's fight with Felix Trinidad Jr. in September 1999 did 1.4 million pay-per-view buys, most for a non-heavyweight fight. De La Hoya also helped sell 950,000 buys for his second fight with ``Sugar'' Shane Mosley in September 2003, about what was expected.

So when the De La Hoya-Hopkins fight was made, Arum was expecting it to at least do what De La Hoya-Trinidad did. After all, Hopkins is one of the greatest middleweights in history. But it sold only 950,000.

``Instead of promoting the Hopkins fight, I spent so much of my time, unfortunately, spinning the excuses for Oscar's performance against Sturm,'' Arum said. ``I just think that was inexcusable, the shape he came in.

``Couple that with the fact that he has only won one major fight the past six years, and it is just not the same attraction as it had been.''

To be fair, De La Hoya has won two major fights the past six years - against Ike Quartey in February 1999 and Fernando Vargas in September 2002.

Arum said the pay-per-view numbers for Hopkins-De La Hoya show there was a 20 percent drop-off in Hispanic households from De La Hoya's second fight with Mosley. He said only improved numbers in urban areas on the East Coast allowed the fight to do as much business as it did. (Hopkins is from Philadelphia.)

--De La Hoya, Hopkins team up: De La Hoya, Hopkins and Schaefer were on hand to announce that Hopkins had signed a promotional contract with Golden Boy Promotions, and that Hopkins has been made a partner in Golden Boy and is president of its East Coast operation.

De La Hoya said it was Hopkins' idea for the two to join forces.

``Bernard approached me after we fought,'' De La Hoya said. ``He told me, `We have to talk.' The partnership, the promoting him, that just all came together.

``We both thought it was something we had to do. Promoting Hopkins is one thing, but being partners and trying to change the sport of boxing, that's another animal. That is why it was very important to team up.''

--Arum turned down Hopkins: As of a week ago Sunday, Arum said there was still a chance he would sign to promote Hopkins' next fight, which could be against Howard Eastman. But Hopkins, Arum said, priced himself out of the deal.

Arum said Hopkins' lawyer, Arnold Joseph, asked for $5 million for the Eastman bout, plus a $1 million signing bonus. Arum said he'd lose $1.5 million in such a deal.

FIGHT SCHEDULE

Wednesday

--At Avalon Hotel, Erie, Pa.: Brian Minto, Butler, Pa., vs. Tipton Walker, Benton Harbor, Mich., 10, heavyweights.

Saturday

--At MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas (PPV): Erik Morales, Mexico, vs. Marco Antonio Barrera, Mexico, 12, for Morales' world super featherweight title; Rafael Marquez, Mexico, vs. Mauricio Pastrana, Colombia, 12, for Marquez's IBF bantamweight title; Oscar Larios, Mexico, vs. Nedal Hussein, Australia, 12, for Larios' WBC super bantamweight title; Ivan Calderon, Puerto Rico, vs. Carlos Fajardo, Nicaragua, 12, for Calderon's WBO mini flyweight title.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo:

Oscar De La Hoya, with his wife, Millie Corretjer, will promote his own fights after parting company with Bob Arum and Top Rank Inc.

Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press

Box:

FIGHT SCHEDULE (see text)