LAS VEGAS — Oscar De La Hoya has changed trainers so many times during his career that the joke around boxing circles after he tabbed Freddie Roach to be his chief second in January was that De La Hoya had just hired his next ex-trainer.
Trainers who have populated De La Hoya’s corner through the years have included Robert Alcazar, Emanuel Steward, Gil Clancy, Jesus Rivero and Floyd Mayweather Sr.
Mayweather Sr., who trained De La Hoya for eight fights from 2001 to 2006 (going 6-2), was let go because of what would have become an obviously untenable situation for everyone, given that he would have been training De La Hoya (38-4, 30 KOs) to defeat his son, pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. (37-0, 24 KOs), on Saturday (HBO PPV, 9 p.m. ET) at the MGM Grand in the biggest fight to hit boxing in years.
So just a few months before the highest-profile fight of his career, De La Hoya hired the highly respected but low-key Freddie Roach, a former trainer of the year, to prepare him for his junior middleweight title defense.
Roach is one of the most in-demand trainers in the sport, and he put his many other clients on hold to exclusively train De La Hoya, who is paying him $1.3 million for his services. That’s less than the $2 million Mayweather Sr. demanded for the assignment.
Once Roach was on board, he accompanied De La Hoya on a cross-country media tour to promote the fight before getting down to business during an eight-week training camp in Puerto Rico, where De La Hoya lives with his wife and son.
That meant for the first time since he trained Mike Tyson in Phoenix for a July 2004 fight against Danny Williams, Roach left his Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., to devote his full attention to just one fighter at a training camp.
Roach trains numerous other fighters, including Manny Pacquiao, James Toney, Israel Vazquez, Robert Guerrero and Peter Manfredo Jr., but had to miss some of their fights while working with De La Hoya.
The former professional fighter typically trains them all at the Wild Card Gym, scheduling each fighter for a different segment of the day. He also has longtime assistant Justin Fortune to give the fighters additional hands-on work.
“I am used to being at my gym 10 hours a day training a bunch of fighters,” Roach said. “Being only with Oscar in Puerto Rico [gave] me a chance to concentrate and focus specifically on the game plan for the fight, something I wouldn’t have been able to do as well as I can now.”
The pairing of De La Hoya and Roach seems to have been good for both of them. During glimpses of the training sessions on HBO’s “De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7,” the four-part documentary series chronicling the preparation of both fighters, De La Hoya has looked focused and energetic under Roach’s tutelage.
Roach said he was pleased with the way camp went, and was even a little surprised at how smooth the adjustment was.
“Well, this is my first time working with Oscar, and it’s been a pleasure. I’m really happy that he chose me,” Roach said. “His work ethic is unbelievable. He’s trained really hard. I was a little leery about it at first because he was a little bit older and so forth and very successful, and I thought his work ethic might not be as good as it is, but it’s great. Everything I ask him to do, he does.”
Roach said he always keeps in mind that De La Hoya is a veteran fighter and that he wasn’t brought on board to make any radical changes.
“You can’t change them but you can help the guy just improve on his weak points,” he said. “The biggest thing is not to try to change somebody because when the bell rings for the fight, they always fight their style, so the thing is, we’re just improving on some moves and pretty much we’re working on the strategy of the fight more than anything. Oscar has been a great fighter way before me.”
The biggest thing they have worked on besides conditioning and the specific game plan is De La Hoya’s strong, but underused right hand.
His career has been built on a crushing left hook and many a trainer before Roach has tried to get him to use the right more often. Roach has been no different.
“He has an excellent right hand, but again, he just doesn’t have really the confidence in the right hand that he does in the left,” Roach said. “I think it will be a factor in the fight.”
It didn’t take long for De La Hoya and Roach to grow comfortable with each other. They’ve known each other for years and Roach has trained some fighters promoted by De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.
Their comfort level was evident from the outset of their new arrangement.
“The thing is, they immediately clicked. It actually started during the press tour when Oscar was starting to work out and they were starting to do mitts while on the tour,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions and De La Hoya’s close friend. “Immediately, Oscar felt comfortable with the style and approach Freddie has to training.”
While it is unusual to make such a major change to a corner before such a significant fight, De La Hoya said it has worked out nicely, although he understands that the decision will be judged on the outcome of the fight.
“He’s been very instrumental at this point in my career,” De La Hoya said. “He’s really made a huge difference when it comes to making sure we have the right strategy and getting me in tip-top shape. Freddie Roach pushes me every single day, and I’m looking forward to being very aggressive. When it comes to my conditioning, I’ll be able to do everything I want to do inside that ring, so I’m really looking forward to that. I didn’t think I could get in better shape at this point in my career, but Freddie has really taken it up a notch when it comes to being in good shape for a fight.”
De La Hoya has been careful not to criticize Mayweather Sr. during the promotion. He said he initially wanted to work with him, which is why he made an offer of $500,000 with a $500,000 bonus if he won.
De La Hoya said, however, that he eventually changed his mind because he was uncomfortable with Mayweather’s family situation, even though Senior and Junior had been estranged for several years.
“It was a very touchy subject,” De La Hoya said. “I have utmost respect for Floyd Sr. I always listened to what he had to say when he trained me. I was his student and we worked great together. When I was making my decision, at first, I said, ‘Yes, he is going to train me and he can do it.’ But after thinking for days and weeks and months, I said to myself, ‘This is his son. Is he going to be as passionate as I am in the gym?’
“I want to knock this guy out. I asked myself all these questions. How am I going to feel in the gym? Will it feel awkward? I didn’t want to feel distracted, like, ‘Wow, here’s the father training me to beat up his son.’ I finally figured we have to get someone else. I think it turned out better for everyone, including Floyd Sr.”
There is also something to be said for change to spice things up, De La Hoya added.
“Having Freddie is kind of like a little refreshing, it brings something new to the table, and it’s motivating,” he said.
From the very beginning of their training camp, De La Hoya said he noticed differences in the way Mayweather Sr. and Roach worked with him.
“There’s a big difference. I mean the styles are totally, totally different,” De La Hoya said. “You know, Floyd Sr., he’s a great trainer, and obviously I have nothing negative to say about him. But the way they hold the mitts and the way they talk to you, ? it’s night and day.
“Whereas Floyd Sr. will have you throw a 25-punch combination, where maybe those first three, four, five punches are going to be effective, and then after that it’s all kind of like arm punching, with Freddie Roach, you’re throwing combinations that you’re going to throw when you’re fighting. I think what I’ve found out is that Freddie Roach is more intense. It’s nonstop with Freddie Roach. It’s combination after combination and ducking under punches. It’s constant pressure, and it’s allowed me to get in better shape.”
Sugar Shane Mosley, De La Hoya’s former ring rival and current business partner, served as his chief sparring partner in Puerto Rico and had a close-up view of how De La Hoya trained under Roach.
“I noticed that with Freddie Roach that Oscar is extending his shots a little more,” Mosley said. “With Mayweather [Sr.], his punches are a lot more shorter and choppier. With the fight against Mayweather, he’s going to have to [throw] some punches a lot longer to actually hit Floyd Mayweather. So, I think it’s a good thing.”
We’ll know for sure by Sunday morning.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
