Boxing: Looking forward to September

After tune-up bout, De La Hoya focuses on Mayweather

Tim Dahlberg | The Associated Press

5/4/2008 - 5/5/08

CARSON, Calif. — The crowd had gone home mostly satisfied, and Oscar De La Hoya had a few minutes to shower and change from boxing trunks into something a bit less revealing. His job not yet finished for the night, he stood in the same ring where he beat Steve Forbes and wasted no time promoting his next act.

This one has already been seen before, but that didn't stop De La Hoya, who is proving as adept at promoting fights as he is in fighting them.

"I tell you one thing, I can't wait until September," De La Hoya said.

September means Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the rematch of the most lucrative fight in boxing history. That's assuming negotiations with Mayweather go according to plan, and with all the millions on the table there are few in boxing who doubt the two sides will come to an agreement.

All that remains is selling the fight to fans, who might have felt they didn't get their money's worth in the first fight last May.

De La Hoya will certainly do his job, just as he did to draw some 27,000 to the Home Depot Center to see what was little more than a homecoming tuneup against the undersized Forbes.

If he needs any help, former middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins is more than willing to weigh in on the side of his business partner in Golden Boy Promotions.

"It's an easy fight to promote," Hopkins said. "You just tell the people when the fight will be and where it will be. ... Believe me, they'll show up."

They showed up Saturday night in a soccer stadium for the first of three fights De La Hoya has planned to finish off his career, and had quite a bit to cheer about as he won a lopsided 12-round decision to keep those retirement plans on track. De La Hoya never knocked Forbes down or hurt him badly, but he won every round on one ringside scorecard and 11 of the 12 rounds on the other two.

More importantly to De La Hoya and his camp, he didn't fade in the late rounds.

"I never looked past Stevie Forbes but at the same time you use it to take that rust out, to work on things," De La Hoya said. "I wanted to get on my toes and challenge my conditioning. I'm extremely confident now I'm going to fight 12 hard rounds in September."