De La Hoya Discovers Trainer’s Right On Target Wbc Welterweight Titlist Follows Advice, Tunes Up For Camacho With A Knockout

Long before Oscar De La Hoya dropped a fighter who had been ordered up to be knocked out, Emanuel Steward glimpsed something that showed that his new boxer was learning from him.

In the opening round of De La Hoya’s first defense of his World Boxing Council welterweight title Saturday night, David Kamau, a Kenyan with long arms, smothered the champion with jabs.

De La Hoya tried to back up, but he was still chewing leather. Again and again, Steward leaned in from the corner and barked, “Step in.” With the round ticking away, De La Hoya did just that - windmilling a couple of left hooks that proved a preview of his knockout in the following round.

Afterward, Steward bounced on his toes mimicking De La Hoya’s retreating method. Six weeks ago, the trainer and boxer were strangers. In the ensuing days, Steward introduced himself by working feverishly to exorcise from the boxer these elegant, tactically sound, but ultimately boring movements.

“In that round, he made an adjustment that marks a great fighter,” Steward said. “He saw he was getting hit and decided he didn’t care about his pretty face. He went on the offensive. That’s why I’m here. I like knockouts.”

De La Hoya, who knocked out Kamau at 2:54 of the second round with a thunderous flurry that sent him to the canvas for the second time, was ebullient after the fight, even a bit disbelieving that he had rediscovered his punch. It was the first time Kamau (28-2), an unranked challenger with a toe-to-toe style, had been knocked out.

So perhaps a bloody and brilliant new partnership has been cemented. On one side is Steward, the man from Detroit’s Kronk gym who polished the ring manners of the brawling Thomas Hearns well enough to capture several championships. On the other, De La Hoya who, despite winning five titles in four weight divisions and a 25-0 record, has been perceived as a soft teen idol.

“No more. Oscar will punch with power. He’ll knock out Camacho.” Steward sounded confident that he can impose his will and Hearns’s brawling style on what is considered a marquee match-up when De La Hoya faces Hector Camacho Sept. 13.