What’s next is boxing intrigue

Boxing fans are on edge these days, not unlike your 6-year-old in the back seat on a long trip.

“How many more miles, Daddy? Are we there yet?”

Actually, we are four days from Oscar De La Hoya versus Manny Pacquiao and several years from knowing how the sport will weather the immediate future against the competitive onslaught of mixed martial arts.

De La Hoya-Pacquiao will be a good gauge. It is an honest-to-goodness megafight, which means we can expect the buildup noise to be worth the drain on our eardrums. If pay-per-view purchases exceed 1.5 million, in an economy where the sale of 1.5 million of anything is remarkable, then boxing will have a good measuring stick.

That immediate future, like the 6-year-old in the back seat, may be many miles away.

Try London or Dubai.

If De La Hoya wins, get ready for De La Hoya versus England’s Ricky Hatton in London’s Wembley Stadium.

If Pacquiao wins, get ready for Pacquiao versus Hatton in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

When they announce the outcome of Saturday night’s fight at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, no matter whose name is called, the winner will be Hatton. “I guess we might all be finding ourselves in Hatton Wonderland pretty soon,” said Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions and partner of the company president, De La Hoya.

There had been talk of De La Hoya retiring after Saturday’s fight, but that seems increasingly unlikely, especially if he wins. So when Schaefer waxes eloquently over the quality and quantity of Hatton fans and says things such as, “Oscar and Hatton in Wembley Stadium, 100,000 fans, maybe break an attendance record -- now that would be a mega event,” you know it’s more than daydreaming.

Bob Arum, another huge player in the sport and Pacquiao’s promoter at Top Rank, sees the next big thing differently.

“You can’t do Wembley,” he said. “That makes absolutely no sense.

“I just got back from Dubai. It’s like Fantasyland. Huge, new, spectacular buildings everywhere.

“Think of Pacquiao-Hatton. There is a large Filipino population in Dubai, and the biggest tourism comes from England. Because I’m Pacquiao’s promoter, I got recognized as much there as Michael Jordan would in the States.”

So, apparently, what happens in Las Vegas won’t be staying there after Saturday.

Boxing’s dominoes could start falling as fast as the boxers.

Schaefer says that a loss, as well as a win, could prompt the 35-year-old De La Hoya to call it quits for good.

“He’ll take the Christmas holidays off and let his body talk to him,” Schaefer said. “If he continues, we’d start looking for something next year, maybe around Cinco De Mayo.”

De La Hoya came all the way down to 147 pounds for Pacquiao, and would probably have to stay there for Hatton. Were it Hatton and Pacquiao, the likely weight would be 140.

Win or lose, Pacquiao, 29, is not contemplating an immediate retirement. Nor is he expected to be around well into his 30s, but for reasons not directly related to boxing. He ran for a congressional seat in the Philippines last year and lost. The consensus was that portions of his massive fan base voted for his opponent so that they could keep him as a fighter. Once he takes himself out of the boxing ring and his fans believe it is a real retirement, he appears to be easily electable.

“I think he has two or three fights after this one,” Arum said, adding that the next elections are in 2010.

After Saturday, other permutations in boxing are infinite.

Floyd Mayweather, retired, unbeaten and still young, could climb back through the ropes any time and create several huge paydays for the sport. Mayweather-Pacquiao I, anybody? Or Mayweather-De La Hoya II?

“Floyd hasn’t said a thing to me about fighting anybody,” said Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s longtime manager and confidant, who is working now in Mayweather’s promotion and concert business. “I wouldn’t say Floyd is in boxing shape right now. But he’s in shape. He takes great pride in that.”

Then there are the other welterweight and middleweight mainstays -- among them Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto, an aging-but-still-game Shane Mosley, and the slightly bigger Kelly Pavlik and retired Joe Calzaghe, who, being a boxer, can and will un-retire any day now. There is also the perpetual comeback threat, Bernard Hopkins, who may fight until he can collect Social Security or at least until he loses his voice.

Then we have promoter Dan Goossen’s ultimate wild card, 6-foot-2, 82-inch-reach, skinny-legged-and-big-punch left-hander Paul Williams, who can and will fight anybody from 145 to 160 pounds but has a hard time getting takers.

Goossen claims Arum left $2 million on the table when he passed recently on putting Williams in the ring with Margarito. Arum fired off a letter to Goossen, writing, “I have absolutely no intention whatsoever to be involved in any fight with Mr. Williams.”

Arum confirmed those feelings recently when he said, “Paul Williams cannot sell one ticket.”

Saturday night, De La Hoya-Pacquiao will start shaking this mix, and the fallout will run down many roads in many directions.

Are we there yet, Daddy?

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