Oscar De La Hoya has a reputation, not exactly undeserved, of being a little too rehearsed.
Frequently approachable, and almost always ready to flash his golden smile, he nonetheless too often gives the impression of giving the answers he thinks he should be giving, or that he feels are in best interests to provide.
It isn?t so much a compulsion of saying the right things, as an apparent fear of saying the wrong things.
It is something Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has harped on frequently in the closing days before the two men clash for De La Hoya?s WBC super welterweight belt at the MGM Grand tonight.
?When you interview him, those interviews are fake, man. My interviews are real. Y?all can touch me, y?all can get to know me, y?all can go eat with me,? he boasted to reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
Thing is, though, after sitting down with a handful of writers on Wednesday for a half hour, Mayweather also sat down for a half hour with journalists on Thursday. And his answers, although delivered in his trademark forceful tone, were nonetheless remarkably similar to the ones provided the day before, even when they weren?t really a direct response to the questions asked.
Mayweather is now the one talking in soundbites. Which made De la Hoya’s relaxed and open manner, as he took his turn to sit in a studio room in the bowels of the MGM?with, it must be said, a far larger grouping of journalists than had shown up for Mayweather?all the more noticeable.
De La Hoya has, of course, been there, done it, seen it all, bought the program, and had an ice cream or two on the way home. This is he biggest fight of his, or any other contemporary fighter?s career, but he has been in the ballpark before: against Trinidad, against Vargas, against Mosley, to some extent against Hopkins?although the hype for that bout, coming off De La Hoya?s disappointing performance against Felix Sturm, and the consensus that Hopkins was going to whup the smaller man, felt relatively muted.
De La Hoya, incidentally, disputes the notion that Mayweather rising in weight to meet him is analogous to his own failed attempt against the man who is now his promotional partner.
?I don?t think you can really compare it to the Hopkins situation. Because I came up from 130 and Hopkins started at 175,? he pointed out. ?So Hopkins was a naturally much bigger guy. Me and Floyd, we?re kind of going on similar paths here with the weights. So there?s not going to be that much difference. I?m not that much bigger than him. The punching power, sure, I can hit harder than he does. The speed: I think a lot of people are going to be surprised with me matching his speed or even being faster than him.?
In response to assertions from Mayweather that it is the Pretty Boy who has been carrying the promotion, and that, having brought the fans this far, he plans on giving them a night to remember, De La Hoya had a simple retort:
?Then make it a fight. Make it a fight that people are going to enjoy. Let?s fight. That?s all I have to say to him. We prepared in the gym to fight in the center of the ring, or we?re prepared to chase him. And so, if we want to make it an exciting fight, then let?s just fight.?
He does not buy into the lazily-repeated conventional wisdom that this is the fight to ?save boxing.? He does not, in fact, think it needs saving:
?I don?t see boxing on the decline,? he said. ?You just have to make the right fights and the people will come. You have Joe Calzaghe selling 35,000 seats. You have fighters in Germany filling 40,000 seat arenas. Boxing is never going anywhere. It?s just a matter of making the right fights. You have to fight the best in order to bring the people out. There?s so much history in boxing, you just can?t compare it with the MMA. We?ll just have to see how it goes. It?s going great for them. You have to commend them, but it?ll never take away from boxing, I don?t think. Because when you have a great fight, people come out of the woodwork to watch. And that?s our job, as promoters, or managers or fighters to make those fights happen.?
And even though he continues to ply his in-ring trade, even as he reaches his mid-thirties?because, he says, ?This is what I do. I love training and being in the gym and working out. This is what athletes do. It?s just in us. It?s a fighter?s instinct??it is also increasingly to promotion that De La Hoya is turning his attention, and the desire to use his crossover appeal to push boxing back into the mainstream.
?I don?t think we?ll have the big mega-events for quite a while. We?ll have the great fights, always. But we won?t have the big mega-events we?ve had these past years. But it?s a big challenge for us as promoters now to come up with a strategy to promote boxers, to create stars. We?re now attracting great sponsors who are doing incredible marketing for boxing. That?s how you do it. That?s how you send out the message that an incredible fight is going on. That?s why this event is going to break all records, because of the sponsors and that?s what boxing needs: the sponsors to create these superstars. And that?s going to take some time.
?I love boxing. I really do. I really want to help boxing. And there?s so much potential in the sport, and I understand it. Richard understands it. This is the sport I grew up in since I was four years old. This is what my father did, this is what my brother did, this is what my grandfather did. So it?s my duty, not only as a fighter but also a promoter, to try and make boxing work and make it as popular and even more so than it was several decades.?
But in the meantime, there is one more certain mega-event to attend to, and an opponent who has not stopped barking at him since the fight was signed and who, at least initially, clearly got under his skin.
?He did his job with motivating me with all that trash talk he was doing at the beginning. Yes, it got to me, it got under my skin and I wanted to punch him then. But now, whatever he says, it?s whatever,? said the Golden Boy.
?I think he resents everything that?s happened to me. Not only in my boxing career. I learned a lot about Floyd Junior from his father. Over the years, he would talk to me about him: ?Oh, he?s so jealous of you, everything you do he wants to be like you,? and this and that. I mean, just create your own examples and legacy. Don?t try to take me down because you can?t be like me. Over the years. His father was right. He kept on saying, ?Oh, he?s not a good guy, he?s not a nice guy, he?s surrounded himself with bad people.? Now I know it?s true.?
For all Mayweather Jr.?s complaints about not getting a fair crack of the whip, about being ignored and overshadowed and underappreciated, De la Hoya reveals that, in the days when both of Saturday?s principals were under the Top Rank banner, De La Hoya and the previous golden boy, Sugar Ray Leonard, were recruited by Bob Arum to try to talk sense into Little Floyd when all three happened to share a plane ride home from a Boxing hall of Fame weekend.
?I remember we were talking to Floyd about, ?You know, you can be the future. The pay per view industry is all there for you, all you have to do is grab it.? Even back then you could tell that he was all, whatever. In one ear and out the other. And Sugar Ray Leonard also recalls this too. He feels like we didn?t get through, that we didn?t get our point across.?
Those days of attempted bridge-building are seemingly long and permanently gone, although De La Hoya insists that he has not take any of Mayweather?s pre-fight barbs to heart, and has not allowed the personal to get in the way of the professional.
?I don?t really dislike him. I dislike nobody. I just don?t care for him. He?s irrelevant to me. Everything he?s saying to me now goes in one ear and out the other.
?That?s how I approach opponents who trash talk. He trash talked me. He motivated me. I saw him the other day, actually in Miami on the press tour. We shook hands, but he was a different man. I mean, he didn?t talk one bit. Everybody has their humbling moment in life, I don?t care who they are, and come May 5th, I hope it?s Mayweather?s time.?
