Prior to the fight, De La Hoya indicated he would retire if he lost to Mosley in their Sept. 13 rematch in Las Vegas.

"I didn't really lose that fight," De La Hoya said Monday. "So, no, I'm not going to retire. It's full speed ahead on my career."

Speaking by phone from his home in Puerto Rico on a conference call to officially announce the fight between Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao on Nov. 15 at the Alamodome — which De La Hoya is promoting through his company, Golden Boy Promotions — De La Hoya let slip with his own announcement.

He said the loss to Mosley only provided "extra motivation" to continue fighting.

"Boxing is in my blood," De La Hoya said. "One bad decision is not going to make me retire."

De La Hoya said he did not know when he would fight again or against whom, only that it would be another "superfight" the magnitude of his pay-per-view showdown with Mosley.

He said he plans to meet with his team of handlers next week in Los Angeles to consider his options. De La Hoya is promoted by Bob Arum and Top Rank Inc.

At the postfight news conference at the MGM Grand after the loss to Mosley, De La Hoya said he planned to launch a "full investigation" into the decision.

All three judges had Mosley winning the fight 115-113. De La Hoya disputed the scores and vowed to get to the bottom of it.

But De La Hoya said Monday he spoke in anger and his decision to launch an investigation was forgotten "five or 10 minutes" later.

"What made me change my mind was the response from the people, the majority of which thought I won and were extremely supportive," he said. "If fans are going to stick by me like that, there is no need for an investigation. The thing to do now is to stay in boxing and try to improve it."

De La Hoya said he wants to do the same thing as a promoter, which is one of the reasons he is bringing the Barrera-Pacquiao fight to the Alamodome.

De La Hoya promotes Barrera and also "Jesse" James Leija (44-6-2), who is scheduled to fight in the Nov. 15 co-main event.

De La Hoya said he favored San Antonio all along in the negotiations, having fought David Kamau at the Alamodome in 1997.

"The thing I remember most is the fans," De La Hoya said. "Whenever we went to train (at San Fernando Gym), it was packed with people. They were lined up outside peering in the windows. That's the kind of support I want Marco to experience."

Lester Bedford, site coordinator for the event, said the Barrera-Pacquiao fight "ranks up there with some of the biggest fights in Texas in the last 20 years."

In other news regarding the Nov. 15 card at the dome:

Tickets — ranging from $25 to $300 — will go on sale Saturday at the Alamodome box office and all Ticketmaster locations.

De La Hoya, Barrera, Pacquiao and Leija will appear at a news conference, open to the public, at 2 p.m. on Oct. 16 at the Alamodome.

Leija's opponent was announced. He will oppose Fernando Mena (17-4-2, 15 KOs) of Durango, Mexico.

TOP

De La Hoya was superb in a sparring session, said Trampler, who heaped praise upon trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. for helping to bring out De La Hoya's talents.

"If he didn't have all these business interests and outside responsibilities that require so much of him, he'd really be an amazing fighter," Trampler said. "I told him if he just boxed and was a four-times-a-year fighter instead of a twice-a-year fighter, what he could do would be really just about whatever he wanted.

"To put it in baseball terms, he's now a five-tool player, where for a lot of his career, he was a three- or a four-tool player. He has it all now, and he's looked as good as I've ever seen him."

• FINALLY HAPPENING -- Mosley frequently has complained that he's not satisfied with his purse. He will get a guarantee of $4.5 million and a $500,000 bonus should he win. Promoter Gary Shaw refused to allow Mosley to take questions on his pay during a conference call Tuesday.

But De La Hoya said the reason it has been three years since he and Mosley met was Mosley's demand for too much money. After defeating De La Hoya on June 17, 2000, a fight in which Mosley dominated in rounds seven through 12, Mosley wanted $10 million for a rematch.

"He wanted a ridiculous amount of money," De La Hoya said.

But De La Hoya wasn't going to be satisfied with his career unless he got another crack at Mosley, so he pushed promoter Bob Arum to make the fight happen.

And now, De La Hoya said he is prepared to put on the best performance of his life.

"I feel he's the same and he still fights the same," De La Hoya said. "He keeps saying, `I'm faster, and he can't handle that,' but I know now how to neutralize speed, which I didn't in the year 2000. The way to neutralize speed is knowing how to throw punches at the right time, not throwing very fast punches and hoping one lands."

• SPEAKING OF MONEY -- De La Hoya has been complaining of pain in his left hand, which he said has been there since he fought Troy Dorsey in his eighth pro fight in 1993. Mosley took a good-natured jab at De La Hoya, because it is De La Hoya who has agreed to take $500,000 from his purse and pay Mosley should Mosley win.

"If Oscar thinks his hand hurts now, wait until I beat him again on Sept. 13 and he has to reach into his pocket to pay me $500,000 from his purse," Mosley said.

Associated Press

Oscar De La Hoya may not be able to get his days right, but there's one thing he's sure of -- his left hand feels fine in training for his fight with Shane Mosley. De La Hoya said Wednesday he took only three days off from sparring after feeling a twinge in his left hand, and has now resumed full sparring and workouts for his Sept. 13 fight with Mosley.

"It actually helped me rest and my body relax by having the time off," De La Hoya said. "I guarantee you my hand will be 100 percent for Mosley."

De La Hoya said last week at his training camp in Big Bear, Calif., that he hadn't sparred since hurting the hand five days earlier. On Wednesday, though, he said he resumed sparring after three days.

De La Hoya had surgery on the hand almost two years ago, and said he sometimes feels pain in it.

"It's a pinch that will always be there," he said. "When I felt it sparring, I panicked and stopped everything."

In a conference call promoting the rematch with Mosley, who beat him three years ago in a split decision, De La Hoya vowed to be ready. "There's no hiding I have a bad hand. I've had a bad hand ever since fighting Troy Dorsey," he said. "But I'm very, very motivated for this fight. It's like training all over again for one of my first fights."

Mosley said earlier he wasn't paying any attention to reports about De La Hoya's hands. "I try not to focus on what is going on with Oscar De La Hoya," Mosley said. "I'm focusing on what I'm going to do in the ring."

On Tuesday, Mosley told the press that he has “reverted” to his original style of ‘power boxing’, relying on his speed and technique to set up his power. Yesterday, in front of the rain-soaked media that huddled around him inside his garage-converted gym, De La Hoya vowed that he would not to take the puncher’s mindset into the ring with him that he took into the Staples Center three years ago.

During this week’s two-day media gathering to hype next month’s pay-per-view showdown, both De La Hoya and Mosley blamed head-hunting tactics for the blemishes on their otherwise awesome records and careers, and both fighters said they want to prove that they have learned their hard lessons by out-boxing the other man, not by out-slugging him.

“My mentality in the first fight was to knock him out, and that was wrong,” De La Hoya said. “I fought like a robot because I kept thinking that I was going to get him. I thought like this round after round. I said to myself ‘I’ll get him in the next round’ until it was the 12th round. I ran out of time.

“For this fight I’m not even thinking ‘knockout’. I’m thinking win, round by round.”

So even though De La Hoya’s admission that he hurt his hand sparring last Friday has revealed that his left wrist is not right, his analysis of why he lost the first fight with Mosley proves that his mind is.

De La Hoya assured the press of two things during yesterday’s ‘media day’ gathering:

1. His wrist is only “hurt a little bit” and it should be “100 percent” by September 13; and
2. His focus now is only on boxing, in and out of the ring.

The second thing he said should take care of the first assurance should the hand injury prove to be more of a problem. When De La Hoya is 100-percent focused on boxing, it doesn’t matter if he’s not 100-percent healthy – he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in the ring.

“Mosley is going to bring out the best in me,” De La Hoya promised.

And De La Hoya’s best, according to his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr., is too much for Mosley.

“You know I don’t like to make predictions where I call the round and all,” Mayweather told a group of reporters, “but I think Oscar should get him by the 10th.

“I tell you what, I’ll put it this way,” he said, clearing his throat to let the interviewers know that they were about to hear an abbreviated Mayweather-brand poem:

“By round eight, Oscar will look so great, that if the ref don’t stop it, it might be too late.”

However, although he sounded almost as confident as his trainer at times during the collective interview with reporters, De La Hoya knows that Mosley will never be an easy fight. Even a Shane Mosley who has yet to truly acclimate his body to the higher weight of the 154-pound division and is coming off two losses and a No Decision is a threat, De La Hoya says.

“It might seem like I’m catching him at the right time, but knowing Mosley for as long as I have, I know he’s still got that fire,” De La Hoya said. “He’s still got that hunger.”

The junior middleweight champ hit the nail right on the head with that statement. Mosley may have got away from the technique that made him a pound-for-pound player in from ’98 to 2001, but he never lost his hunger or his desire to win.

Not even after he was nearly decapitated by Vernon Forrest in the second round of their first fight. Mosley somehow got up from those two devastating knockdowns and tried to fight back on sheer heart and instincts. Mosley didn’t just try to survive, he tried to win, and somehow, he managed to finish that fight on his nimble feet.

While Mosley’s losses to Forrest have prompted most fight fans, boxing media, and Las Vegas odds makers to make him a decided underdog in this rematch, De La Hoya has chosen to toss both fights out of the equation.

“I didn’t learn much from watching those fights,” De La Hoya said. “I did see that he can be hit by a right hand, but my style is different that Vernon’s.”

Yes it is, and those who believe that Mosley will repeat on Sept. 13 point to the old ‘styles-make-fights’ saying as the reason. Forrest will always beat Mosley, but Ricardo Mayorga will always beat Forrest, and Mosley will always beat De La Hoya.

“Not if you are able to change your style,” De La Hoya counters.

“I’ll be different this time. He couldn’t beat Forrest because he didn’t change. He didn’t make adjustments after the first fight. I’m not going to be the same Oscar.”

So what will De La Hoya do that’s so different this time around?

“It’s no secret,” he said. “I’m going to fight him tall. I’m going to use my height and reach and not fight him short they way I did in the first fight. I’m going to let him come to me. If he wants my title, he can come get it.

“And I’ll throw a lot of jabs this time, not just one at a time, but double and triple it up. I’ll throw a lot of right hands, which he didn’t see from me in the first fight.

“And I’ll kill the body.”

So there it is, a rough blueprint for a revenge win. But De La Hoya says his change for the better goes beyond his technique, it also includes his focus, something he admits he didn’t have going into the first fight.

“Training is no. 1,” he said. “I still make time to for my promotional company, but as long as I’m focusing on boxing – not music or acting – I’m OK.

“I just had to ask myself ‘What got me here?’ It was boxing. So now, I focus on boxing, and when I do that, I can’t go wrong.”

THE WRIST STUFF

De La Hoya divulged that he hurt his left wrist while sparring last Friday but said the injury is not serious enough to even consider postponing the anticipated rematch.

“When it first happened I freaked out a little bit,” he said. “All these bad things went through my mind – that the fight would be cancelled, that my career was over — and then two minutes later it was all gone. I told myself that it will be OK. I’ve trained too hard to postpone this fight.”

De La Hoya said that he will meet with his hand specialist on Monday and added that he will even spar tomorrow.

“I’ll just use my right hand,” he said. “There’s just a little bit of pain in the left, like a pinch on the back of the wrist when I throw it.” It’s a pain that he’s come to accept.

“It kind of pisses me off, because I got an operation on this hand, but it’s still an injury that won’t go away,” he said. “I’ve come to realize that for as long as I decide to fight, I’m going to have to live with it.”

THE HIT LIST

And how much longer will De La Hoya stay in the fight game? He says that’s a question he can’t answer right now. “This fight means so much to me that I can’t even think beyond it,” he said. “It’s all about revenge for me now.”

And if he gets his redemption, are there any more challenges for him? De La Hoya wouldn’t discuss anyone but Mosley, but sitting behind him on the canvass of his ring, this reporter spotted a piece of paper taped to the garage door of the makeshift gym. The following hand-written names of four fighters were assembled from the bottom to the top of the crinkled page:

‘Vargas’ (which was crossed out in pen), ‘Mosley’, ‘Trinidad’ (which was also crossed out, but only in pencil) and finally, ‘Hopkins’.

By CARLOS ARIAS
The Orange County Register

LOS ANGELES – Oscar De La Hoya still believes he has a shot to lure Felix "Tito" Trinidad out of retirement and into a rematch.

"I can guarantee it's going to happen, and I can't wait," said De La Hoya, who will promote tonight's HBO Latino card at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.

De La Hoya has been looking to erase the two blemishes on his record, a controversial decision loss to Trinidad in 1999 and a split-decision loss to "Sugar" Shane Mosley in 2000.

He will get a chance to avenge one of his losses on Sept. 13 when he faces "Sugar" Shane Mosley in Las Vegas.

"I have to have both of those fights," De La Hoya said.

De La Hoya said he has spoken with Trinidad on a couple of occasions. Trinidad maintains he is retired, but De La Hoya said Trinidad's camp has given hints that it is open to the idea of a rematch.

"There are rumors," De La Hoya said. "I keep hearing something about contracts."

The rumors De La Hoya was referring to were that Trinidad is riding out the remainder of his contract with Don King before making a rematch with De La Hoya.

Trinidad's cousin, Juan Gomez-Trinidad, faces Javier Jauregui in the main event at the Olympic. Trinidad was supposed to arrive in L.A. on Wednesday morning, but he missed the early flight. De La Hoya said he plans to continue working Trinidad and the Puerto Rican champion will be ringside for his cousin's fight.

It's got to be. Both De La Hoya and Mosley are desperate for a win over the other fighter. Desperate fighters, be they world-class masters of the ring like these two multi-division champs or four-round journeymen fighting for a hundred bucks, make for good fights.

And how is it that two guys who are millionaires are so desperate? Simple, if De La Hoya loses to Mosley again, he's made it very clear that he'll be done with this sport. He'll focus on his budding promotional business and new family life. If Mosley loses it will be the fourth straight fight since the start of 2002 that he has failed to notch a "W". He's already been dropped from The Ring's respected pound-for-pound list, The Dynamite Dozen, and he only ranks at the no. 5 spot on the magazine's list of top-10 junior middleweights. One more loss and Mosley could permanently lose his superstar status in the sport.

Whoever loses when the two lock horns again on September 13 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas may not be heard from again on the world-class stage. At least fight fans can expect that fighter to go out with a bang, as De La Hoya and Mosley have the chemistry to make for a damn good, perhaps even great, 12-round fight every time they get in the ring together.

What kind of chemistry, you ask? The kind of chemistry that counts only in the Sweet Science — the chemistry of personality, style, technique and rhythm.

The first fight, which ended in a split-decision win for Mosley, was a beautiful exhibition of controlled aggression and skill for 12 fast-paced and entertaining rounds. There were no clinches. No head butts. No low blows. No hitting on the breaks. No lulls in the action. No complaining to the referee. There was only good, clean punching and boxing. The two champions touched gloves at the end of every round, and then came out to knock the other guy out at the start of the next round.

That's the kind of chemistry these two have. They have like personalities and complimentary fighting styles.

Both fighters are just regular, good natured guys outside of the ring. They don't suffer from the kind of insecurity or ego mania that make other fighters feel the need to talk a lot of smack to their opponents. De La Hoya leaves the trash talk to his flamboyant trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr., while Mosley lets his new promoter Gary Shaw lead the verbal retaliation at press conferences or at the negotiating table.

In fact, outside of the ring, it's safe to say that De La Hoya and Mosley like each other.

"We have nothing but respect for each other," De La Hoya said during last Wednesday's press conference. "But once that bell rings, there's no friendship."

Inside the ring, they are the fiercest of competitors. They wouldn't be where they are today if they didn't share that special kind of fire. It's the kind of burning desire than never allows a fighter to admit defeat, even after he's been soundly defeated. Winning is their obsession.

"I've watched that fight on tape at least 50 times," De La Hoya, seated at a table full of sports writers after the press conference, said of his first fight with Mosley. "I've analyzed it many times. I thought the first half of the fight belonged me and the second half had to go to him. But after everything was said and done, I felt he beat me."

It wasn't something he could admit right after the upset loss that took place in L.A. Staples Center. De La Hoya said he should have won the fight "by maybe one point" at the post-fight press conference. He said his promoters weren't looking out for his best interest. Later he said that he ate some bad oysters before the fight that made him sick. Now he admits that he just couldn't stomach losing.

"I was confused after the fight," he said. "He didn't blow me away what-so-ever, but being in Los Angeles and being the favorite, I thought that a close fight would go to me."

In terms of pride, Mosley's no different from De La Hoya. After his first loss to Vernon Forrest (the first of his pro career) last year, he blamed it on an "intentional" headbutt his only conqueror delivered in the second round shortly before a hard right hand and uppercut violently sent him to the canvass — twice. In the rematch, which he also lost, he said that Forrest held too much, and he feels he really won the bout.

Whatever. That's the past, and Mosley doesn't dwell on the past.

It doesn't matter to him that he has not won a fight since his third-round stoppage of Adrian Stone back in July of 2001. It doesn't matter to him that he suffered back-to-back losses to Forrest last year, or that he was dropped and seriously hurt in their first fight.

"I'm so competitive that I don't think about that stuff," Mosley told a table full of reporters after the press conference. "I don't have a quitter's mentality. I keep going until I figure out a way to win. I'm not done with Vernon. I want to redeem that loss. I'm lookin' to fight him again, but right now the focus is Oscar."

His desire to beat De La Hoya has forced him to jump up in weight once again. In late '99, his mission to beat the Golden Boy prompted him to abdicate his 135-pound world title and leap-frog the 140-pound division — where he would have dominated — to the welterweight division, where De La Hoya held the title. Now De La Hoya holds the junior middleweight world title and Mosley has jumped up from 147 pounds to challenge him.

It doesn't matter to Mosley that in his only bout this year, he looked far from the devastating force that he was at lightweight when he fought former 154-pound titlist Raul Marquez. That fight, Mosley's first bout as a junior middleweight, ended in a no-decision after an accidental headbutt produced a nasty cut above one of Marquez's eyes following three ugly and inconclusive rounds.

It doesn't bother Mosley or his father and trainer, Jack, that De La Hoya has gone on to win universal recognition as the 154-pound world champ after knocking out the formidable Fernando Vargas last year or that De La Hoya has picked up some new tools and techniques, mainly a defensive shoulder roll and sharp right hand, from Mayweather.

They see the same old Oscar that little Shane beat in the junior amateurs when the two fighters were pre-teens and the same man that Mosley defeated as a pro to take the WBC welterweight title in 2000.

"I see the same Oscar," Mosley said. "Against Fernando, I saw more of what Vargas didn't do than what Oscar did do. I saw the right hand, but I don't know if Oscar's right hand is as good as Vernon's."

Jack Mosley doesn't think Mayweather has added anything to De La Hoya's game that his son can't handle.

"I don't know if all that stuff will work against Shane," the senior Mosley said. "If Oscar wants to roll his shoulder we'll keep him rolling right on out of the ring. It's good people didn't get to see much of Shane against Raul Marquez. People saw what they wanted to see, and I think I know why they took this fight. But they are wrong and we are going to prove them wrong."

The "they" Mosley's father referred to would be De La Hoya's braintrust, promoters (Top Rank) and HBO, which will televise the fight on it's pay-per-view arm. He thinks that "they" think that his son is finished. And he might be right about "them". But he's wrong if he thinks De La Hoya himself is not taking Mosley seriously.

"There is no fight set up after this one," De La Hoya said. "I'm focused only on Shane Mosley. All my energy will be focused on my training. I will have a picture of him on my bedroom mirror in training camp. I'll see his face every morning when I wake up to do my road work. This will be the fight of my life and I think we'll give another fight of the year."

Fight of the year? Is that just De La Hoya hyping the fight or is he serious? Probably both. De La Hoya knows what he has to do to win this fight, but he also knows that his revenge win will not come easy against Mosley.

"I've known him all my life," De La Hoya said. "I know what I'm up against."

Don't expect De La Hoya to try to fight Mosley the way Forrest did. He has never been a stand-up stalker or a jab-and-grab fighter who lunges in with his head. De La Hoya has always been a mobile boxer-puncher who relies heavily on his nimble footwork and left hand — mainly his jab and hook. That makes for a very competitive style for Mosley, who can trouble De La Hoya if he can land his quicker jab first and time right hands over the Golden Boy's vaunted left hook.

Mosley was not able to get anything going against Forrest, who was able to catch the Pomona flash with a perfect right hand after shaking him with the hard (but unintentional) clash of heads in the second round of their first fight. In the dreadfully boring rematch, Forrest wisely tied up the hyper-offensive-but-shorter fighter on the inside until the referee separated them and then he kept Mosley outside of striking distance with a well-timed jab. Mosley is a rhythmic fighter, and Forrest had a style that constantly disrupted that rhythm.

De La Hoya, like Mosley, is also a rhythmic fighter and together, they make beautiful music for fight fans. But De La Hoya admits that he fought the wrong fight in their first bout by forgetting about his lateral movement and jab, and only pressing forward behind his hook in hopes of catching and stopping Mosley.

"This time I know it's going to be a whole different fight, a different game plan," he said. "I'm going to jab like there's no tomorrow. The jab will be the key. I'll block his right hand with my left and throw counter rights over his right."

De La Hoya expects another good fight, just a different outcome this time.

"It's a matter of adjusting," De La Hoya said. "(Marco Antonio) Barrera (didn't beat Junior Jones in their rematch) because he didn't change up styles versus Jones. Mosley didn't change his style versus Vernon Forrest in their rematch.

"Against me, I expect Mosley to throw a lot of looping punches. He feels stronger and more confident because he's bigger now. It should be an exciting fight. We have good chemistry."

There's that word again. Chemistry. It's like an honors class in high school for De La Hoya. Fans will find out if De La Hoya has learned the correct mix of technique and rhythm from Prof. Mayweather to render Mosley inert despite their naturally combustible matchup.

Bout against Mosley rekindles memory of win over Rudolph in 1992 Olympics

By KEVIN IOLE
REVIEW-JOURNAL

But when De La Hoya walked into the ring on that late summer day in 1992, he faced an additional demon. His opponent was Marco Rudolph, who a year earlier was the last to have beaten De La Hoya. Rudolph won a close fight to open the world championships.

Now, facing the biggest fight of his life, De La Hoya not only had to cope with the jitters that go with an event of that magnitude, he had to overcome the mental aspect of knowing his best wasn't good enough against Rudolph before.

De La Hoya was shaking as the bell sounded, but he knocked Rudolph down in the final round to win a decision, capture the gold medal and launch a historic professional career.

De La Hoya has won recognized world titles in five weight classes, earned well over $100 million and is his sport's signature name. But when he puts his super welterweight title on the line at the MGM Grand on Sept. 13, he'll be thinking back to that night in Spain against Marco Rudolph.

De La Hoya is going to fight Shane Mosley in a rematch of a June 17, 2000, fight that Mosley won by split decision in Los Angeles. There were bigger fights monetarily for De La Hoya, but he insisted he wanted to settle a score.

De La Hoya has lost twice as a pro, to Felix Trinidad on Sept. 18, 1999, and to Mosley. But De La Hoya thinks the Mosley loss is his only true defeat as a pro. It took him awhile to come to that conclusion -- he sulked in his locker room for more than an hour after the first fight -- and later insisted he had earned at least a draw.

"A few weeks afterward, I accepted the fact I did lose that fight," De La Hoya said at a news conference Wednesday at the MGM. "It was a very close fight. It was a very competitive fight. He didn't blow me away. He didn't win by unanimous decision. It could have gone either way, but I did feel like he beat me. I just felt like the loser that night."

He felt like the loser, too, when he fought Rudolph in the first round of the 1991 world championships. After the decision was announced, De La Hoya lost control of his emotions. He cloistered himself for more than two weeks before he would see anyone.

"I remember losing and going crazy afterward, not knowing what had happened," De La Hoya said. "I locked myself into a hotel room for two weeks and didn't come out. I blamed it on everyone else except for me."

He said Wednesday that a poor game plan, less-than-perfect conditioning and a bout of food sickness contributed to the Mosley loss. De La Hoya knew it would be a struggle to make weight, and after weighing in for that welterweight title fight at the 147-pound limit, he wanted to celebrate.

He wound up eating a bad oyster. "I got sick in my stomach -- bad sick," De La Hoya said, laughing.

He said the illness hindered his performance, as did his insistence on going exclusively for the knockout. He said he's a more well-rounded fighter now, but Mosley didn't appear worried.

Mosley also has something to prove, considering he has two losses and a no contest in his last three fights.

"I have to win for myself, and not only win but do it in grand fashion, where it's not just a win but a spectacular win," Mosley said. "This time, I'd like it if he was on the ground and the referee is counting him out. I take it as it comes. If it's a 12-round unanimous decision, that's fine with me. But look at my record -- it's 38 wins with 35 knockouts. I knock out a lot of people. I would much rather it not go the distance and not leave it in the hands of the judges."

The big fights should continue for De La Hoya, 30, who is close to signing a two-fight extension with HBO. His current deal expires after the Mosley rematch. The new one will take him through 2004.

"He's a rock star," HBO's Kery Davis says of De La Hoya's popularity.

As successful as De La Hoya is at boxing, he's using his powerful persona to do more than just sell his own fights. He also sells other people's products and fights.

Few boxers have Madison Avenue clout, but De La Hoya, with his clean-cut image and looks, has deals with powerhouse companies Nestle, Visa, Gateway and Miller.

Since launching his own company, Golden Boy Promotions, in January 2002, De La Hoya has become a promotional player, too. HBO Latino is renewing Boxeo De Oro, the monthly series featuring De La Hoya-promoted bouts, for a second season. He'll promote four cards this year on Telefutura. He also has ESPN2 dates this summer.

Promoting is not just something De La Hoya lends his name to. He takes it as seriously as his fights.

"What I really like is that there is no day that passes where Oscar doesn't call and give input on the matches or ask about the finances. He gets involved," business manager Richard Schaefer says. "It shows once he retires this will be something he will enjoy doing."

De La Hoya says he started the company before retiring so that when he finally hangs up the gloves he'll have an established, profitable operation waiting.

"I'm feeling more pain with boxing than I did when I was 21," he says. "I'm hurting my hand, my shoulder, my back. It's getting harder to recover. It's an indication that it's almost over. It's no secret. When I say I'm done, I won't be coming back. I'll be tempted but I won't come back. Instead I'll be promoting, building the next star."

Golden Boy Promotions is entering pay-per-view with its July 19 "Fiesta De La Hoya" featuring Stevie Johnston vs. Juan Lazcano in a lightweight eliminator, junior featherweight champ Oscar Larios vs. Marco Licona II and 115-pound titlist Fernando Montiel.

All told, De La Hoya will promote about 40 events this year.

Oscar De La Hoya has opted not to accept a challenge by lightweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. because the super welterweight champion has "nothing to gain."

Top Rank president Bob Arum, who promotes both boxers, said he still thinks the fight might happen in 2004.

Arum predicts the bout would be a box-office hit because Mayweather's estranged father, Floyd Sr., is De La Hoya's trainer. Also, Mayweather Jr. has been envious of the attention and high purses paid to De La Hoya.

Arum said that when Mayweather Jr. broached the idea, he was immediately in favor of it. "They'll write books about this," Arum said.

However, De La Hoya said he views the fight as a no-win situation and will look to arrange a bout with undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins instead.

"No, no, no. I'm not fighting Mayweather. Forget it," De La Hoya said. "Nothing at all against Floyd. It's just that, what do I have to gain with a fight like that? I have nothing to gain.

"Imagine what would happen. If I knocked him out, everybody would say, `Big deal, Oscar knocked out a lightweight.' And if he made it a good fight, it would be like, `Look at what this little guy is doing to Oscar.' There's no way I could win in that situation."

However, Arum said De La Hoya has been flip-flopping and eventually will accept the bout. He said De La Hoya needs to win his next two fights, against Yory Boy Campas on May 3 at Mandalay Bay and against Shane Mosley on Sept. 13 at the MGM Grand, before worrying about Mayweather.

If that happens, Arum said he'll push for a May 2004 fight against Mayweather.

"Let's let this thing play out," Arum said. "One of my major priorities is to make that fight happen. I'm not guaranteeing anything, but I'm very persuasive."

Mayweather Jr. said De La Hoya would make more money fighting him than for fights against Mosley or Fernando Vargas. Mayweather said he thinks his father has advised De La Hoya to refuse the bout and said De La Hoya knows he won't win.

De La Hoya is guaranteed $12 million plus a percentage of the pay-per-view revenue for his upcoming Mosley fight.

"If they would scoop out eight figures for me to fight a smaller man, I'd be on that right away because it's easy work," Mayweather Jr. said. "I've told you before that deep in his heart, Oscar knows he can't beat me. My father doesn't want the fight and I'm sure he's been in Oscar's ear. But that's OK with me, because he's with Oscar and Oscar is paying his bills.

There is no doubt that De La Hoya-Trinidad II would be a blockbuster before they enter the ring, but the fact is De La Hoya wants the fight more that Trinidad seemingly does.

As one boxing insider told the Buzz, “Tito can go to bed every night for the rest of his life knowing that he has the win over De La Hoya. Oscar goes to bed only thinking about what could have been, after fighting so well in the early rounds.”

For De La Hoya, the biggest fights are rematches with Shane Mosley and Trinidad and a jump up to middleweight against Bernard Hopkins, who would give a great fight even if he had to get out of a wheelchair to do it. But while he is thinking of the future and the fights that will crown his career, De Le Hoya shouldn’t forget about his next opponent Yory Boy Campas, or for that matter IBF champion Winky Wright.

Yory Boy has a surprise for De La Hoya: First, miles of roadwork in the heat of Mexico. Then conditioning, sparring, fine-tuning in the cold mountains. That's the blueprint for Yory Boy Campas who is now training in Tijuana and then will relocate to Big Bear, California the first week of April.

Campas 80-5 (68) will go in as a huge underdog against the “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya on the 'Night of Champions' HBO Pay-Per-View May 3 at Mandalay Bay.

The equaliser, Campas said, will be his right hand. “One punch can end it all,” Campas said from Tijuana.

“One real hard punch and no more Golden Boy. I've seen great fighters like De La Hoya get finished off with one, two big punches. Look what happened to Forrest, everyone told me, before Forrest's last fight, Mayorga had no chance. That's what a big puncher can do.”

“No one is unbeatable. De La Hoya knows what to expect in this fight. That's why he's going to train hard,” said Campas. “I won't be fancy. The bell rings, I'm in his face. He'd better be ready. This is the fight of my life,”

De La Hoya's response to all of this?

“There is always danger anytime you walk into a ring,” he said.

Mosley has been dissatisfied with an offer of $4.25 million compared to the $12 million De La Hoya would earn for the bout. The Mosley offer is $250,000 less than his purse for their first fight in June 2000, a fight won by Mosley on a split decision.

"I think Oscar took a tremendous step forward by making this offer," said Richard Schaefer, De La Hoya's business advisor. "That shows good faith on Oscar's part. He told Shane, 'Don't be concerned what other people make. Be concerned with what you make. If you feel so strongly that you are going to win, you'll get an extra half million out of my share.' "

Said Jack Tiernan, Mosley's agent: "Shane recognizes and commends Oscar for the good faith he showed in making the phone call. He respects Oscar as a friend as well as a foe.

"Shane and his wife [Jin] are discussing the offer and he will let everyone know his decision shortly."

Bob Arum, De La Hoya's promoter, had given Mosley a deadline of last Monday to sign the contract after Mosley had initially agreed to the original terms several months ago. Mosley refused to meet the deadline, asking instead for more money. De La Hoya and Schaefer say now that there is no hurry.

"These self-imposed deadlines are not necessary," Schaefer said. "I don't understand why we need to be in a rush. We will be ready to close a deal when the deal presents itself.

"Shane is a smart guy. He knows what this means. He knows public opinion, the opinion of network executives and even that of his own promotional organization is that he should take this latest offer. It would be such a big mistake if he did not."

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