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A study in contrasts De La Hoya talks titles, retirement in advance of fight
Updated: Saturday June 23, 2001 6:46 PM
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- One minute, Oscar De La Hoya is talking about retirement. The next, it's big rematches with Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley. He wants to be a singer. He wants to be a boxer. In De La Hoya's often-contradictory world, only one thing is certain -- he intends to become a champion once again Saturday night against Javier Castillejo. "I miss being a champion," De La Hoya said. "I miss fighting the megafights." De La Hoya gets a chance to be a champion again for the first time since Trinidad gave him his first defeat nearly two years ago when he challenges Castillejo for the WBC 154-pound title. Actually, challenge might not be the correct term for De La Hoya's role in the fight. Castillejo holds the title, but De La Hoya is making the big money and is a huge favorite to beat the largely unknown champion in his first fight at 154 pounds. De La Hoya might be moving up in weight, but Castillejo is making a huge jump up in the caliber of his opposition. "Oscar thinks I'm easy," Castillejo said. "He's making a big mistake." De La Hoya (33-2, 27 knockouts) will try to win a title in a fifth weight class when he meets Castillejo in the scheduled 12-round fight from the MGM Grand hotel-casino. The fight will be televised on pay-per-view beginning about 11:30 p.m. EDT. Both fighters weighed in Friday at the class limit of 154 pounds. De La Hoya is a 9-1 favorite to beat the Spaniard, and De La Hoya is so sure of his chances that he said this week he would retire from boxing if he loses. "A loss would mean that's it, it's over," he said. "I would have no reason to be inside the ring anymore." Figuring out whether De La Hoya actually means what he says, though, might be more difficult than sizing up the abilities of Castillejo, who has made five title defenses. Throughout his career, De La Hoya has consistently contradicted himself and routinely pronounced himself a new and different fighter. He's doing it again under Floyd Mayweather Sr., the latest in a string of trainers. Under Mayweather, De La Hoya says he has reverted to the old-fashioned ways of training by chopping wood and running with boots on. He claims he's learned to slip punches and use his right hand more. "He's taken me to a whole different level," De La Hoya said. "Right now it feels very, very natural to stand in front of an opponent and block punches. I didn't do that before. All the world titles I won were on natural talent." De La Hoya is so effusive in his praise of Mayweather, the father of 130-pound champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr., that it seems sometimes he can't stop talking about it. Mayweather was hired by De La Hoya after his loss to Mosley. He was available only because he was fired by his own son. "Mayweather is like a security blanket to me. I have so much confidence in him," De La Hoya said. "If he says I'm going to beat this guy then I'm going to beat this guy." Assuming De La Hoya does beat Castillejo -- a fight that will earn him some $5 million -- he'll not only have a title again but also a platform to negotiate rematches with Trinidad and Mosley or a possible fight against Fernando Vargas. For Trinidad, De La Hoya says he will move up to 160 pounds. For Mosley, he'll go down to 150 and fight him between weight classes. Both fights would mean big paydays for both De La Hoya and the fighters who beat him. De La Hoya is one of the few fighters outside the heavyweight ranks who is a proven ticket seller, and the revenge factor also would be big. "This isn't a big mega-event against a Trinidad, Vargas or Mosley," De La Hoya said. "But when I get that belt back I'll be in the driver's seat for that." Castillejo (51-4, 34 knockouts) has been largely overlooked and derided by some as a fighter who is selling his title for the $800,000 purse De La Hoya's promotion team is paying him for the fight. He's spent the last two months training in the desert outside Las Vegas, though, and says he'll prove far more difficult than De La Hoya or his handlers might think. "Oscar is more popular and that is why he is the favorite," Castillejo said through an interpreter. "That is not a problem because I am going to show Oscar and the rest of the world who the champ is, and then I will be the better-known fighter and the favorite." Castillejo, fighting in Spain, won the WBC title with a decision over Keith Mullins in January 1999. He has ventured outside of Spain to defend it only once, stopping Javier Martinez in Mexico City last October. Also on the card is a fight between IBF junior featherweight champion Lelohonolo Ledwaba of South Africa and Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines. Three 2000 Olympians, Jermain Taylor, Jose Navarro and Michael Bennett also will fight.
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