Even before Oscar De La Hoya signed a contract to fight Floyd Mayweather, Jr. on May 5 in Las Vegas, he was told by many that Mayweather’s speed would be a real problem for him. Oscar plans to prove the critics wrong when he matches Mayweather’s speed in the ring. During a recent conference call with the media, De La Hoya made it clear that he will take risks in order to trap Mayweather.
“In boxing the punch that hurts the most is the one you can’t see. We know he’s fast but how fast is he at 154? We’ll find out on May 5. I’m sure there will be many times I’ll lure him into my traps. The name of the game is hit and not get hit, but I’ll take some risks. I’ll be in tremendous shape so I can take those risks. I can let him hit me a couple of times to see what power he has. I think that’s going to happen in the fight,” De La Hoya said. “People are saying speed is a massive factor in this fight but I think people are going to be surprised by how I can match his speed.”
Floyd Mayweather, Sr., the man who trained De La Hoya for the last six-years, is currently in his son’s training camp and teaching him how to beat his former fighter. De La Hoya replaced Floyd Sr. with Freddie Roach after he refused to meet the elder Mayweather’s demand of a $2 million dollar training fee. De La Hoya does not see Floyd Sr. making an impact on his son winning the fight.
“Everything’s going great, as planned. I’m very excited to be working with Freddie Roach. I don’t think the fact Mayweather Sr has gone back to working with Floyd is going to make a difference. I know Mayweather Sr is telling him ‘Oscar this Oscar that, Oscar’s vulnerable here, he’s vulnerable there’. We’re ready for that and we’re sticking to our gameplan.”
“I’ve been studying Mayweather Jr for so many days – watching his tapes. We have him down. It’s not a fight where I’m going to have to change my whole strategy. I’m just going to have to make little adjustments to capitalise here and there.”
De La Hoya is tired of the trash talk and feels that Floyd Jr. needs a humbling experience to come down to reality.
“I truly feel that he needs a humbling experience. He really is a little brat. I don’t think the way he comes across. It’s very arrogant. Obviously we were on a press tour for so many days and he can get up on the podium and say a few nice things and then his real side would come out. He starts talking all his trash. It’s uncalled for and unnecessary. You’d never see Tiger Woods talk badly about Jack Nicklaus. It’s disrespectful and it really revs me up,” De La Hoya said.
“I actually never had any contact with Floyd Jr prior to the media tour. I didn’t know of him, I didn’t know what kind of person he is. I only knew what his father would tell me – he’s a bad guy, he hangs round with bad people, he’s a little brat and he needs to be taught a lesson. I didn’t think he was that bad but once I got on the media tour I could understand what he meant.”
