Boxing Championships

Oscar de la Hoya of Los Angeles and Shane Mosley of Pomona won won U.S. amateur boxing championships Saturday night at Colorado Springs, Colo. De la Hoya, 17, scored a 4-1 decision over Ivan Robinson of Philadelphia for the 125-pound title, and Mosley, 18, took the fight to Patrice Brooks of St. Louis and kept his 132-pound crown on a 5-0 decision.

Vernon Forrest became the second U.S. finalist in the World Amateur Boxing Championships at Sydney, Australia, Wednesday when Cuban Candelario Duvergel delivered a low blow and was penalized. The Cubans still have the most finalists, six, and the U.S. team has two, one more than it had in the last World Championships at Moscow in 1989. Forrest, 20, of Augusta, Ga.

It was, more than anything else, decisive. No quirky judges' scoring logic. No bizarre moments of intrigue. First Julio Cesar Chavez went down to the canvas, victim of a perfect right cross by unheralded Frankie Randall, then he went down in defeat for the first time in his long career. In a split-decision that rocked the fight world, Randall, the No. 1 challenger, defeated Chavez and took his World Boxing Council super-lightweight title. One judge, from Mexico, scored it 114-113 for Chavez.

Tonight, before a live gate at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, which is attached to the Trump Plaza Hotel, and a pay television hookup that could push the total gross up to a record $70 million, there's going to be a fist fight between two athletes who come from two of America's worst ghettos. In one corner, there's Mike Tyson, the undisputed heavyweight champion. He's the one from Amboy Street, in the Brownsville Section of The Bronx. When he was 12, he was a street mugger. Now he's 21.

Were boxer Antonio Margarito's fists of steel actually aided by concrete? Did Ultimate Fighting Champion Georges St-Pierre defend his title bout with enough Vaseline so that he was as slippery as a greased pig? Fighting lore is sprinkled with colorful tales of questionable gamesmanship, yet even in this age of high-definition cameras and intense state testing, athletes are still swayed to sometimes bend the rules.

American medal hopefuls Terry McGroom and Skipper Kelp were beaten today in quarterfinal matches at the World Amateur Boxing Championships. The defeats mean that the United States will have only three boxers in the semifinals. Semifinalists are assured of bronze medals. The 23-year-old McGroom, of Chicago, held his own with Nurmagomed Shanavazov of the Soviet Union in the first round, but the harder-hitting Shanavazov controlled the next two rounds for a 22-9 victory.

The Arrowhead Pond has staged its share of unconventional events, from indoor football to rodeos, roller hockey to motorcycle races. So is an all-female boxing card really that absurd? Probably not. The Pond's bimonthly "Fight Night" boxing shows haven't exactly captured the attention of area boxing fans in nearly 2 1/2 years of Monday night cards. And other than Roy Englebrecht's "Battle in the Ballroom" event at the Irvine Marriott, no local promoter has turned a profit at a large venue.