De La Hoya- Mayweather just what boxing needs

LAS VEGAS – Not long after ending a 20-month layoff with a knockout victory against Ricardo Mayorga last May, Oscar De La Hoya got to thinking another fight might not be such a bad idea.

But it had to be a big fight. One that would motivate him to get his body and mind ready. One that would command the attention of the boxing world.

Wearing the dual hats of fighter and promoter, De La Hoya didn’t have to think twice who that opponent would be.

In accepting the challenge of Floyd Mayweather Jr., De La Hoya will risk his WBC super welterweight title Saturday night at the MGM Grand, having decided a bout against the sport’s No. 1 pound-for-pound champion was just too big to leave unfulfilled.

“Right when I decided to make this fight, I knew this was going to be an event like no other,” says De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions stands to rake in a windfall from the HBO Pay-Per-View fight ($54.95) that’s projected to be among the highest-grossing fights in history.

“I don’t think there has ever been a fighter-promoter involved in this type of event,” De La Hoya said. “Literally, the whole world will be watching. It’s good for the sport, it’s good for our company and it’s good for my career. The decision I made had to do with all those things.”

As the sport’s biggest non-heavyweight attraction in history, De La Hoya didn’t even have to pick the fight. Mayweather, eager to escape his contemporary’s sizable shadow, did that for him by taking every opportunity to call De La Hoya out over the years.

“When I was talking about this fight four or five years ago, everybody wasn’t listening,” Mayweather says. “Everybody laughed at me and said, ‘Oh, this is a joke.’ But now that the fight is here and it’s the biggest fight in boxing, they’re saying that, ‘Oh, Floyd knows what he’s talking about.’ “

If many scoffed at Mayweather’s desire to fight De La Hoya when he first started the campaign, it was probably because there was quite a bit of size difference until recently. Both fighters have progressively moved up as world champions, De La Hoya (38-4, 30 knockouts) winning titles in six weight divisions and Mayweather (37-0, 24 knockouts) winning titles in four weight classes.

But as recently as 2003, Mayweather was fighting as a lightweight at 135 pounds, and De La Hoya has been fighting at no less than his current 154-pound weight class since 2001. Mayweather, who will be making his super welterweight debut after only three fights as a welterweight (147), says it won’t matter.

“I always knew my frame was solid enough to carry the extra pounds,” he says. “It’s nothing to put on a couple of extra pounds and become a super welterweight.”

Mayweather says his adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, did not believe him when he kept insisting that one day De La Hoya would take the challenge.

“He was like, ‘No, Floyd, the fight’s never going to happen, the guy’s not going to fight you.’ But I always knew the guy was a smart businessman, and I kept telling him, ‘It’s going to happen.’ Things happen for a reason, and this fight is happening for a reason.”

For De La Hoya, there’s more than one reason, none more important than the chance to be on top of the sport again.

“To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best,” he says.

“Obviously, it will elevate my status in the game. Hopefully, I’ll gain some more respect as a fighter. Golden Boy Promotions will gain some serious recognition. And I believe the sport is going to be helped the most. My job inside the ring is to make it a great fight. That’s where most of my pressure comes from. Because I do feel pressure. It’s going to be a big fight.”