LAS VEGAS -- No wonder Roy Jones Jr. gets agitated when Oscar De La Hoya's name is brought up. He's got to fight heavyweights to be guaranteed $10 million and get any respect from the public.

Meanwhile, De La Hoya was guaranteed $11 million (he made $8 Saturday night, and another $3 million will come right off the top of the pay-per-view revenue) for what was basically a seven-round sparring session with Yory Boy Campas, and he's loved by all.

Well, almost everybody. De La Hoya, who easily retained his junior middleweight crown against Campas, may have lost some hardcore supporters by allowing Saturday's massacre, which took place before 12,000 adoring fans at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, to be on pay-per-view for 50 bucks a pop. These are tough economic times, and die-hard boxing fans want real bang for their bucks -- not gross mismatches.

According to CompuBox, De La Hoya, now 36-2 (29 knockouts), landed 53 percent of the near 500 punches he threw, of the 226 jabs he shot and of the 272 power punches he launched at the swollen head of Campas, who fell to 80-6 (68). He also knocked out Campas' mouthpiece six times.

Real fans care about De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley, which is set for Sept. 13. After George Foreman, who stated on air that he thought Mosley would win the rematch, it was "Sugar Shane" who was ringside, who received the loudest ovation from the crowd when his name was announced before the De La Hoya-Campas fight. Real fans care about a potential return grudge match with Fernando Vargas, who was also ringside (and was soundly booed by De La Hoya groupies), or even a unification match with IBF title holder Winky Wright (who was met with near silence). De La Hoya likes to talk about a future matchup with Bernard Hopkins, the reigning middleweight king.

All those matchups sound good to this reporter, who was bored out of his gourd watching poor Campas eat jab after jab, hook after hook, combination after combination, round after round, until the underdog made it past the midway point of the seventh round (the "over/under" or "will go/won't go" at the Mandalay Bay's sports book on this fight was six and a half rounds, and word has that everyone in the know bet the over -- hell, maybe members of the Campas corner, who yelled at referee Vic Drakulich to stop the contest at 2:54 of the seventh round bet "the over" themselves).

Whatever the case, it was clear that De La Hoya was working on things he has been practicing in the gym with trainer Floyd Mayweather, Sr. Other fighters do this against lesser opponents before taking on tougher foes, but nobody gets paid the way the Golden Boy does. Hey, this scribe isn't mad at the Golden One -- don't hate the player, hate the game, and all that stuff. De La Hoya has earned his fame by playing the game right and by taking just enough necessary risks inside of the ring during a brilliantly-mapped out career. And since his last loss (some say his only real loss), against Mosley back in June of 2000, he's improved as a fighter.

So Oscar, you can stop practicing. You've got the patented Mayweather shoulder block-and-roll move down. You've developed a dangerous and sneaky lead right hand that Hitman Tommy Hearns would have been jealous of. Your combinations are back, and they are more accurate and deadlier than ever -- Sugar Ray Leonard never did it better. It's sweet the way you led most of those combos off with an uppercut and then came back with lightening fast hook-cross or cross-hook follow-ups -- the Ghost of Ray Robinson smiled upon you tonight. You can Rope-a-Dope like a 154-pound Mexican-American Muhammad Ali. Your jab and footwork has never been better -- float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! You're still pretty!! Your golden smile has never shined so bright!!! You've got all the money!!!! You're like the Oprah Winfrey of East L.A.!!!!!

So please! Please!! PLEASE!!!! Leave the Yory Boys of the world alone. Let's move on to Mosley, then to Vargas or Wright and, finally, to Hopkins and then we can all meet up in Canastota to salute a career well done.

The co-featured bout of the evening was no less one-sided or brutal than De La Hoya-Campas, but it lacked De La Hoya's golden smile. Instead, it was punctuated with the "El Terrible" sneer of the WBC featherweight champ.

After dropping the game but completely outclassing Bobby Boy Velardez four times on the way to an easy fifth-round technical knockout victory, Erik Morales stood over the fallen youth with one glove on his hip and the other glove pointing down to the failed challenger, who was being attended to by the ringside doctor while cameras snapped shots of the scene.

Morales, who retained his WBC title and picked up an easy $300,000, was like a hunter posing for photos with his freshly slain prey. But the fight was not much of a hunt. It was more like shooting fish in a barrel.

Morales, who improved to 44-1 (33), nonchalantly dismantled Velardez with surgical precision. He never once rushed the young man, nor did he initiate any combinations. Morales wanted the fight to go a few rounds in order to punish the challenger for what he felt was an injustice when Velardez traveled to Tijuana last year and won a fight against his younger brother via disqualification.

In that fight, Morales' younger brother, Diego, was on his way to winning the fight, having dropped Velardez four times (same number as his big bro scored tonight), but an over-anxious cornerman on the Morales side ruined it by jumping into the ring before one of the later rounds was finished. Velardez was saved by a DQ and did not have nice things to say about his stay in TJ to the press once he returned to his home to San Bernardino, Calif. And for that, Morales did not have nice things to say about Velardez. The sad thing for Velardez, who dropped to 24-5-1 (6), is that Morales likes to talk with his fists, and he gave the kid quite a lecture tonight.

A single hook dropped Velardez near the end of the first round after the brash youth tried to take the fight to the veteran in the opening minute of the fight. You could say Velardez was saved by the bell, but it's doubtful that Morales would have tried to finish him. His painful lesson was just beginning.

Velardez stormed out hard at the start of the second round and was met by a patient Morales, who waited for the right opening to present itself and then nailed the upstart with a right hand that reduced the challenger to mauling tactics. As Velardez tried to bull his way inside and smother the champion's punches, Morales nailed him with straight rights to the body and head -- crippling, pin-point accurate shots -- but none of the follow-up punches that would have knocked the kid out came after the punches landed. Velardez was forced to hold on to get through the round.

In the third round, Morales worked just hard enough to avoid Velardez's crude lunges and wide punches and then punished the lad with more single shots. In the fourth round, Morales finally decided to put his punches together and quickly dropped Velardez with an accumulation of punches in the middle of the round. Velardez got up and gamely punched back, even producing a little bit of blood from the nose of Morales, but even he knew he was just a boy fighting a man by this point. A two-fisted follow-up from Morales put Velardez on the canvas again near the round's end, and this time the kid really was saved by the bell.

Referee Kenny Bayless wisely stepped in at 1:02 of the fifth round, after Morales dropped Velardez again and was ready to really put a beatdown on the kid.

Afterward, Morales turned his scorn to an older and worthy rival -- Marco Antonio Barrera.

"I'll fight Barrera at 128 pounds in my next fight," Morales said. "I'm through making 126 pounds. I have too many problems making featherweight. If he doesn't want to fight me at 128 pounds, then I'm moving up to 130 pounds and fighting for a world title there."

Look out Barrera, Acelino Freitas, Carlos Hernandez and Jesus Chavez -- this guy is POed.

The undercard
Jorge Arce held on to his WBC 108-pound title via technical decision after going six tough rounds with veteran Melchor Cobb Castro. Referee Joe Cortez stopped the bout after the sixth round on the advice of ringside physician Dr. Margaret Goodman because of a nasty cut that Arce suffered over his left eye after an accidental head-butt. Judges Bill Graham and Lou Filippo both scored the bout 59-55, while Dalby Shirley scored it 58-56, all for Arce, who improved to 34-3-1 (25).

Castro, who scored a flash knockdown in the third round and was coming strong in rounds five and six, was upset at the scores and stoppage. After weighing in three pounds over the 108-pound limit on Friday, and then draining his body down to 107 pounds in less than an hour, many speculated if he could fight 12 rounds with a solid veteran like Castro, who suspected that Arce saw his cut as a means of escaping a loss.

"Arce was looking for a way out," said Castro, who fell to 66-8-4 (30). "I know for a fact that he asked his corner to stop the fight."

Most of the ringside press had the fight for Arce, but only by a point or two. The crowd booed the technical decision and Arce as he left the arena.

Arce was taken to a nearby hospital where his cut was stitched up, but he returned to the Mandalay Bay to attend the post-fight press conference and apologized to everyone from promoter Bob Arum to the NSAC to the WBC for not making weight on his first try.

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