De La Hoya knows he needs to deliver

LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya knows the media won't be satisfied if he jabs his way to a clear-cut, but ho-hum, decision over Manny Pacquiao when they meet in the year's biggest fight on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.

The public, De La Hoya understands, won't be enthralled by a workmanlike victory over the reigning pound-for-pound kingpin.

But most importantly, De La Hoya himself won't be satisfied by anything other than a clear, decisive victory. He's fighting a guy who has spent exactly three-quarters of his career boxing at super bantamweight or lighter.

Logic would dictate that a good big man – in this case De La Hoya – should be able to defeat the good smaller man.

But to the Golden Boy, who is fighting the universally recognized pound-for-pound champion for the second time in his last three fights (the last one being his loss to Floyd Mayweather in May, 2007), anything other than a knockout is not good enough.

"I will be extremely, extremely disappointed if this fight doesn't end in a knockout," De La Hoya said. "It will be a total disaster for me."

De La Hoya is just 3-3 in his last six fights and hasn't won by a knockout in more than eight years, since Feb. 26, 2000, when referee Wayne Kelly counted Derrell Coley out in New York's Madison Square Garden.

Worse, perhaps, is that he's struggled down the stretch in two of those three losses, against Shane Mosley in 2003 and against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year, unable to win fights that were clearly within his grasp.

De La Hoya wouldn't say he's gotten satisfied with coming close, but he said the move down a class, from 154 to 147, as well as a return to Big Bear Lake, Calif., for training camp reminded him of his young and hungry days.

Then, he rallied in the 12th round of a 1999 fight with Ike Quartey, scoring a final-round knockdown to cinch a victory.

"That's been the motivation, (to get that late-round spark back)," De La Hoya said. "I think the weight triggered that. Going back to Big Bear reignited the fire in my belly. It reminded me that, 'Hey, this is what you have to do to maintain, and to become that great fighter that you want to be.' I can picture this fight, and if it's going to be a tough fight and we're going to duke it out until the last round, I can see me fighting as hard as I can and not feeling (any) pain.

"That's why I'm looking forward to this fight so much. I know my abilities, I know the hard work I've put into it and I have those memories that Big Bear gave me of my fight with Quartey and different big fights I've had in my career. It's going to be good."

De La Hoya concedes that he's squandered opportunities over the last few years and hasn't taken advantage of his prodigious natural gifts. He's quick and powerful, but he's often taken a measured approach to his preparation.

A fight with De La Hoys is the Super Bowl for each of his opponents, and to a man they've prepared that way. But De La Hoya hasn't always been as prepared or as motivated as he's needed to be and the result has been that he's performed at a far lower level than he's capable.

"Not the most," he said when asked if he'd gotten the most out of his ability in the last five years. "The reason why I keep changing trainers is because I'm looking for that trainer to bring out the best in me. I thought Mayweather (Sr.) could do that, and he was very close. But now having Nacho Beristain, it's a whole different ballgame. It's incredible how much of a technician he is and how hard he works you out. I didn't think I could push myself to those types of limits."

His business partner, long-time middleweight ruler Bernard Hopkins, expects De La Hoya to knock out Pacquiao in the eighth round because he knows De La Hoya desperately wants to prove a point.

A loss to Pacquiao would be horrific for the Golden Boy, and Hopkins insists De La Hoya knows it. And Hopkins said De La Hoya has heard all the whispers about his decline and that he's near the end.

That, he said, has gotten De La Hoya more eager to prove a point. It's not about a possible $40 million payday. It's not about basking in the glory of a win. It's about something inside of an athlete, Hopkins said.

"Oscar knows it's a disaster – a disaster – to lose this fight," Hopkins said. "It ain't about the Hall of Fame. It ain't about, 'I've made millions of dollars.' It ain't' about, 'I've got a pretty wife and kids.' It ain't about the great house. Do you understand? This thing comes down to some ego, a little ego, a lot of ego. Pride. Principle. It comes down to something that the average person, even the most studious reporter, can't grasp why.

"At this stage, we know why (Evander) Holyfield is doing it. We know why most fighters fight: They need the damn money. But this is a situation where it is even more mind-boggling, because he doesn't need the money. He has big businesses going on. He has a perfect situation. He's a Hall of Famer without even taking a vote. But you have to understand, it takes a hell of a guy to want to even go through all this again when he has all that."

Eric Gomez, De La Hoya's childhood friend and the matchmaker for his Golden Boy Promotions, has seen the impact the wear-and-tear has had on De La Hoya's body. De La Hoya has spoken of a few injuries over the years publicly, but Gomez said De La Hoya's body isn't the same as it was when he was 25 instead of 35.

Hopkins, who at 43 is coming off one of his most impressive wins, said an aging fighter has to train harder and put up with aches that hurt much worse.

De La Hoya, he's convinced, is not fighting for the money but rather for his legacy. He's an exceptionally prideful fighter and understands that he hasn't performed as well as he or a demanding media have expected.

And, as Hopkins pointed out, De La Hoya understands all too well that while the much smaller Pacquiao has little to lose and everything to gain, it's the opposite for De La Hoya. De La Hoya, he said, is long past the stage where chasing a title or a belt is important. It goes much deeper.

"There are stages you pass in life," Hopkins said. "You go from learning how to ride a bike to riding a bike to a point where you're falling off the bike. At that point, it's not that you become bored with it, but it's an accomplishment that's been conquered. Oscar De La Hoya, I believe, is motivated by a lot of things that Pacquiao has never experienced yet.

"He calls me and asks me things and, frankly, I'm shocked I got the damn call," Hopkins said. "He asked me how I'm able to stay focused through the times when I woke up in the morning and didn't feel like running. He asked me, 'How did it feel when you beat (middleweight champion Kelly) Pavlik and you looked out to ringside and saw all the reporters who picked you to lose looking at you?' Oscar's eyes gleamed when he saw that."

Gomez expects De La Hoya to have the same kind of motivation to win on Saturday that Hopkins had when he met Pavlik in October and nearly everyone in the media picked against him.

De La Hoya is 35 and his body isn't the same, Gomez said.

"I've seen Oscar age," Gomez said. "I know things other people don't. He's not that young kid any more. He's had some injuries. Some he's made public. They've crept up during camp. He's not that young kid any more and he's not at the top of his game at this point. He's not as fast as he once was. He still works very hard. He takes it seriously.

"But the thing that's most important is that he understands that Manny poses some threats. This isn't an easy fight. And Oscar knows it would be a disaster if he were to lose. And so I think Oscar wants to win this so badly and he's gotten himself to such a point in his career that I think you'll see him as good as you ever have. He wants this and he wants it badly."

De La Hoya said he never assumed he'd win because he's bigger and perceived to be stronger. He's quit working out with weights, which he believes has been a boon, and prepared to face what he calls an ultimate challenge.

He dismissed the notion out-of-hand that he has ever thought Pacquiao wouldn't be able to handle his pressure.

"That's been out the window since the first day," De La Hoya said. "What happens is, if you think that in your mind, you tend not to train, you tend to be overconfident. This comes with experience. I've been through this many times. If you think, 'Oh, he has no power,' or 'Oh, he has no speed,' or 'Oh, he's smaller,' that's when everything can go wrong for you.

"I trained for King Kong. On Saturday night, we'll see what happens."