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'I plan to put on a great show' De La Hoya wants to fight complete fight against Mosley
Posted: Thursday June 15, 2000 03:54 PM
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Oscar De La Hoya would like nothing better than to put his last three rounds against Felix Trinidad behind him. Shane Mosley could give him the perfect opportunity when they meet June 17 in Los Angeles. "It's very important I go out there and put on a great show," De La Hoya said Wednesday. "The only thing that matters is me going out there and getting a devastating win." Still smarting from his decision loss last September to Trinidad -- and the accompanying criticism for running from Trinidad in the last three rounds -- De La Hoya sees his fight against the unbeaten Mosley as a chance to make amends of sorts. That not only has him training as never before at his Big Bear, Calif., camp, but also promising that he will fight as never before. "It's going to be very, very explosive," De La Hoya said. "People are going to say, `Wow,' when they see the fire I have." De La Hoya took a break Wednesday from a training regimen that has him sparring up to 13 rounds ever other day to speak in a conference call about Mosley and his own place in the list of boxing's top fighters. As usual, De La Hoya said all the right things. But this time he seemed to say them with a bit more intensity born out of his only pro loss. "That decision helped me refocus and rededicate myself," De La Hoya said. "I know now for a fact that if I'm in shape 100 percent, there's no one out there who can beat me." De La Hoya (32-1, 26 knockouts) meets fellow Los Angeles native Mosley (34-0, 32 knockouts) at the Staples Center in what may or may not be a defense of his WBC welterweight title, depending on whether a dispute over sanctioning fees is resolved in time. It will be the second fight for De La Hoya since losing to Trinidad in a controversial decision, and what he hopes will be the second knockout of four that he has planned for this year. "When I said I would have four fights and four knockouts this year, I really meant it," De La Hoya said. "I plan to put on a great show." De La Hoya claims injuries and a bout with the flu didn't allow him to train hard enough for Trinidad, forcing him to run the last three rounds to finish a fight he was easily winning. There are no such problems this time around, De La Hoya said, predicting he will be able to walk through the punches of Mosley, a lightweight turned welterweight, and be able to overcome Mosley's speed. "It's going to be very different," De La Hoya said. "I'm going to attack, attack, attack. I'm not going to show my boxing skills the way I showed them with Trinidad. I'm going to show a more elusive, more explosive, very aware fighter." De La Hoya said he has sparred extensively for the fight, and plans to go 15 rounds on Saturday before beginning to taper off. The motivation for his training comes from both the challenge ahead and the loss to Trinidad, which De La Hoya claims came at a time when he was taking things too easily. "I was getting lazy. I wasn't really motivated," said De La Hoya, who has made more than $100 million in the ring. "I would only train enough to beat a guy. Now I'm training not just to beat the guy, but so I can beat him decisively and get a knockout."
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