Oba Carr

At 1 o'clock, the police began to move the crowd, good-naturedly but firmly, herding everyone off of Howard Street in front of Joe Hand Gym in lower Kensington. "Please, please," Joe Hand Jr. implored. "Behind the barricades, please. You've got to give him room to get out of the car. " Unceremoniously, like reluctant cattle, the residents of this blighted neighborhood on the edge of Fishtown were forced back onto the sidewalks. They hovered in a chill wind and stood their ground, curious to see, determined to wait for Mike Tyson.

Emanuel Steward says Gerald McClellan is the "best all-around fighter I've ever had. " What? Better than Thomas Hearns? Better than Michael Moorer? "Well, maybe he's not there yet, but he could be," said Steward, manager- trainer of numerous world champions who rose through the ranks of his fabled Kronk Gym in Detroit. "He has the skills to be the best. "In the last year, he became my major project. That's one of the reasons Moorer left me. He thought I was devoting too much of my time to Gerald.

More than two months after hurting his left foot in a pickup basketball game, Ray Mercer is still feeling the pain - not from the injury, but from the controversy the injury ignited. Mercer, whose camp had agreed to an Aug. 9 match with Riddick Bowe, pulled out a day later, citing an ankle swollen to about twice the size of its mate. Mercer, the World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion, said his doctor had advised him not to fight before his management ever informed him of the deal with Bowe.

"Terrible" Terry Norris outpointed Paul Vaden, an old San Diego home town enemy, at the Spectrum last night in a 154-pound world championship bout that saw the loser perform so poorly his $250,000 purse has been withheld. Norris, the World Boxing Council super-welterweight champion, won by a one- sided decision over Vaden, the previously undefeated International Boxing Federation champion, in an often-slow, frequently booed bout before a crowd of about 5,000 and a national television audience.

Like unrepentant football great Lawrence Taylor, Pernell Whitaker isn't apologizing to anyone about anything. He is what he is and if you don't like it, well, that's your problem. Taylor, who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame last month despite a series of drug busts and failed rehabs, defiantly refused to apologize for his off-field woes before the vote. He could rush the passer like no one else, LT suggested, and that's all that should matter for purposes of enshrinement.

When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out in 1803 to find what there was to America that hadn't been settled, they weren't sure what obstacles they would have to overcome. It turns out they had to traverse raging rivers and scale high mountains. But with the hardships came exposure to the majesty of a virgin wilderness, which is all the comfort a true explorer needs. Oscar De La Hoya still is feeling his way toward that higher ground whose siren song he hears in his head.

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates is the wealthiest private citizen in the world, with a personal fortune estimated at $14.8 billion. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson isn't quite that rich, which is OK by him since he claims he isn't particularly interested in money. But income is another way of keeping score of individual success, and, well, Iron Mike has an hourly wage that would make even Gates weak in the knees. Actually, Tyson gets paid more by the minute than the hour.

His last fight left Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins without a mark. His opponent, Keith Holmes, who had been the World Boxing Council middleweight champion, had welts and bruises from his eyes down to his thighs. The only round Hopkins didn't win decisively in capturing a unanimous 12-round decision was the fifth, but that was because he lost a point for a low blow. Later, the referee warned him that he risked disqualification if he didn't keep his punches up. All of his considerable faculties still intact, Hopkins quipped in a postfight TV interview: "I figured I should hit myself to get some points, because I was afraid to hit him anywhere.

World Boxing Council welterweight Oscar De La Hoya, seemingly on the verge of his first professional loss, rallied to defeat previously undefeated Ike Quartey last night at the Thomas and Mack Center before a crowd of about 16,000. De La Hoya, 26, knocked off his feet in the sixth round, scored two knockdowns and had Quartey reeling early in the final round en route to a split decision. The scores were 115-113, 115-112 and 114-115. It was the 30th straight victory and by far the toughest for De La Hoya, who said before the fight that it would be his first real test.