Fight Over Managing De La Hoya Costs Bout

The bitter, four-day battle over Oscar De La Hoya’s future escalated Monday, wiping out his scheduled New York City debut Thursday, but at the end of the day faint signs of a possible solution were visible.

Bob Mittleman and Steve Nelson, De La Hoya’s co-managers, filed a $10-million lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the two men they believe have encouraged the fighter to try to break his contract with them. De La Hoya was not named in the suit.

Meanwhile, De La Hoya’s lawyer, Michael Norris, issued the first statement from the fighter’s new representatives, saying that De La Hoya had sought to terminate his contract with Mittleman and Nelson previously but that they ignored De La Hoya’s wishes.

Norris also said that De La Hoya, 20, was undergoing unspecified medical examinations, the results of which would be released in the next few days.

“Our hope is that the former managers can step aside and allow Oscar to get along with his life,” Norris said.

“I think it was everyone’s hope that after Oscar’s showing in the (1992) Olympics and the fights that he’s had so far professionally, that Oscar would be at a point in his career that he would have control over what’s happened to him.

“And what’s happened the last two months has indicated to Oscar that some of the decisions that have been made for him early in his career are not the correct decisions, and he’s attempting to remedy that.”

The sides apparently began discussions toward a settlement Monday evening that would remove Mittleman and Nelson from the picture.

“Maybe we can work something out,” Mittleman said.

Mittleman acknowledged that he and Nelson had received a letter from De La Hoya in October, requesting the termination of his contract. “We asked him, ‘Are you unhappy with us?’ He said, ‘No, no, no,’ ” Mittleman said.

Nelson said they received a second termination request Friday, the same day they were served with a restraining order forbidding them to be in De La Hoya’s presence.

Promoter Bob Arum officially canceled De La Hoya’s Thursday fight against Jesus Vidal Concepcion, but still was planning to hold an ESPN fight card that night.

Randy Gordon, executive officer of the New York State Athletic Commission, said he would seek to hold an administrative hearing on De La Hoya’s cancellation if Arum requested it. Arum was noncommittal about that. If Gordon decides that De La Hoya could have fought, De La Hoya might face suspension.

Mittleman and Steve Nelson, who signed De La Hoya to a five-year, $1-million contract after his gold-medal performance in the 1992 Olympics, filed the lawsuit against Raynaldo T. Garza and Jerry Salas.

Salas is a cousin of De La Hoya’s father, Joe, and Garza is a local businessman associated with Salas. Neither was available for comment Monday.

Mittleman and Nelson said that filing a lawsuit against Salas and Garza--with whom they have had no contact--is the only way to protect their contractual rights.

Sources say the two managers have paid De La Hoya $800,000, with Arum having loaned them about a third of that amount.

De La Hoya was scheduled to make his first world title challenge March 5 at the Olympic Auditorium and was set to sign a five-fight, multimillion-dollar deal with HBO in the next few weeks. An HBO spokesman said the deal with De La Hoya remains on course.

“We have a valid contract with Oscar, and obviously, they are interfering with it,” Nelson said of Garza and Salas. “They won’t let us talk to him and now they apparently have told him not to fight in New York, which means he’ll be suspended. That means the HBO deal’s off, all the deals are off, so many things will be lost.”

The phone at De La Hoya’s house in Montebello--where he lives with his father and brother--was disconnected Monday.

Arum fears that De La Hoya was hurting himself by joining inexperienced boxing people. Arum said he believes they gave De La Hoya more than $1 million in cash to leave Mittleman and Nelson.

“I think the harm can be incalculable, especially at this point,” Arum said. “If he was an established superstar, then you could brush your way through any of these things. But he isn’t. Everything had been going really well and hopefully you can rehabilitate everything.”