Oscar De La Hoya sat inside the ESPN Zone at L.A. Live on Tuesday after playing host to a news conference promoting the Feb. 25 junior welterweight fight between Victor Ortiz and Hector Alatorre at Club Nokia.
But reporters surrounding De La Hoya wanted to talk more about the possibility of a May 1 fight between "Sugar" Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr. They also wanted to know if De La Hoya believes a fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao might still happen at some point.
When asked about Mosley-Mayweather, De La Hoya's eyes widened.
"That's the super fight that really takes boxing to another level because now you're talking about two All-American fighters who are really going to transcend the sport and take it to another level," said De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions has a working agreement with Mayweather, and promotes Mosley.
Richard Schaefer on Friday morning said Mosley and Mayweather have agreed on all the major points, and that a deal is virtually at hand.
"Negotiations are going very well," said Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy. "We are pretty much getting there. I would hope that early next week we will have some big announcement."
The demand by Mayweather for Olympic-style drug-testing that killed his proposed March 13 fight against Pacquiao would be in play for Mosley-Mayweather.
"I believe Mosley will raise his hand and say, `Take me to the laboratory,"' De La Hoya said. "That's what Mosley's going to do and I'm going to be the first one to applaud him because Mosley has nothing to hide."
Mosley once admitted before a grand jury he unknowingly was on the steroids "the cream" and "the clear" before his second victory over De La Hoya in September 2003. Said Schaefer: "Floyd made it clear a couple of weeks ago or so that going forward, in any one of his fights, he would require Olympic-style drug-testing. And, as Shane said before, it's no issue for him."
Olympic-style testing requires random blood samples and urinalysis that can be taken as close to the day before the fight, as well as directly after. It is something De La Hoya said needs to become the rule for boxing because the sport is a life-and-death proposition.
Currently, the state of Nevada, where most of the bigger fights are held, tests only urine just before and just after a fight, though it does occasionally take out-of-competition urinalysis.
"I think what's going to happen with boxing is, people are now opening their eyes and realizing that, wow, you have two fighters who want to bash their brains in and if one fighter is on something, it can be devastating," De La Hoya said. "It should be mandatory that fighters go through these extensive tests to make sure that they're clean because it's our life up in that ring and we can't risk that."
When Pacquiao and Mayweather couldn't get together on how close to their bout Pacquiao would agree to have blood drawn - Pacquiao does not like to have blood drawn close to a fight - the event was scrapped. De La Hoya is of the mind it's a fight that has to happen eventually.
"Obviously, we tested the waters on how big this fight can be and, will the fight happen? Absolutely. It has to happen, no doubt about it," De La Hoya said. "It's too big not to happen.
"We didn't make it for one single reason and I think we all know what that reason is. But I'm very optimistic that it can be made in the near future because it's not that boxing needs it, it's that boxing wants it."
De La Hoya was reminded Pacquiao has said he will not agree to Olympic-style testing. "I'm sure the public will hopefully make him change his mind, because why would you not want to earn $40 million?" De La Hoya said. "Why would you not want to show the public that these speculations are all nonsense?
"Just go ahead and be the king and the master and say, `Hey, what are you talking about? I'm clean. I'm a clean athlete."'
The "speculations" De La Hoya spoke of were started by Floyd Mayweather Sr., who has strongly suggested Pacquiao uses performance-enhancing drugs. Others in the industry jumped on that bandwagon. Pacquiao has never had a dirty test.
The bottom line, De La Hoya said, is that boxing is no laughing matter. Cheaters in this sport, he said, should be banned for life.
To that end, he said he is "disgusted" Antonio Margarito is going to try to get a license to fight in Texas on the undercard of Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey on March 13 at Cowboys Stadium.
De La Hoya said Margarito should re-apply in California first because this is the state that revoked his license after he was busted with plaster inserts in his hand wraps prior to his fight with Mosley in January 2009 at Staples Center. That said, the Association of Boxing Commissions allows Margarito to apply for a license in any state one year after it is revoked in another.
"And," said a peeved Bob Arum, who promotes Pacquiao and Margarito, "that's what he's doing."
Ortiz shows courage in latest victory
It appeared to some Victor Ortiz might have quit in the sixth round of his junior welterweight interim title fight against Marcos Maidana in June at Staples Center. He had just gotten off the canvas after being decked in the sixth for the second time in the fight, his right eye was severely cut and there was a huge mouse under his left eye.
Just before the ringside physician stepped in to check him - the physician advised the referee to stop the fight - it seemed Ortiz wasn't that interested in continuing.
In the post-fight interview in the ring, Ortiz - who floored Maidana three times - said things like, "I was hurt, I'm not going to go out on my back. I'm not going to lay down for anyone. I'm going to stop while I'm ahead, that way I can speak well when I'm older. ... I'm young, but I don't think I deserve to be getting beat up like this, so I have a lot of thinking to do."
Ortiz, of Ventura, might have put the questions some had about his courage to rest when he came back and stopped former contender Antonio Diaz in the sixth round in December in Chicago.
"I wasn't 100 percent pleased with it because I know I still have more that I can work on," Ortiz said Tuesday at a news conference promoting his Feb. 25 fight against Hector Alatorre at Club Nokia at L.A. Live. "But overall performance, I was happy that I did exactly what my corner asked me to do."
Ortiz's manager, Rolando Arellano, was equally stoked.
"It kind of removed all the potential misconceptions that happened last time as to whether he had heart," Arellano said. "You know, `Is this kid shot already? Is he done?"'
Arellano said it was also good for Ortiz to prove to himself he is not gun-shy.
Then again, when a reporter was trying to ask Ortiz what he thinks of those who still wonder about his intestinal fortitude, the question wasn't finished being posed when Ortiz (25-2-1, 20 KOs) answered.
"I'm not here to make anybody happy," said Ortiz, 22. "I can't change anyone's opinion. I just keep on boxing and doing what I like to do. And that's just, you know, come back and work hard."
Alatorre, 28, is 16-8 with five knockouts. Ortiz is fighting him to stay busy until May 1, when he is slated for another big fight under the Golden Boy Promotions banner.
Source: dailynews.com
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