By Robert Morales

It was last Thursday, about 1 p.m. in Los Angeles. Richard Schaefer, CEO of Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, had just finished hosting a news conference to announce the signing of two-time featherweight champion Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero at the Golden Boy offices.

As Guerrero and a few members of the Spanish-language media continued to talk in the conference room, Schaefer walked with this reporter to his office. After talking briefly about the proposed May 2 fight between Golden Boy's Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao, the subject turned to De La Hoya.

Why, Schaefer was asked, did De La Hoya look like he was 45 instead of 35 on Dec. 6 when he was stopped after eight rounds by Pacquiao, who was thought by many to be too small to have a strong chance of winning?

"I know Oscar is probably not going to like what I'm going to say, but I'm going to say it anyway," Schaefer said. "First of all, Oscar will not make any excuses. And I don't want to make any excuses. The fact is Pacquiao turned in an amazing performance. He had the right strategy and he fought a very disciplined fight. He was not as wide and as wild as he usually is. You can't take away anything. But it was shocking to me to see how Oscar was."

Schaefer for the first time revealed that De La Hoya had gotten down to as low as 143 pounds a month before the fight. When De La Hoya played host to media day about three weeks before the fight, he said he was 145. Also, Schaefer said that De La Hoya never gained two pounds from the day of the weigh-in to the night of the fight, as was reported.

"That is a misconception," Schaefer said. "When he weighed 145 (at the weigh-in), he took off his shoes and he took off his gear and he weighed 145. The night of the fight when he came into the venue, they put him on an HBO scale and he came in with his shoes and his jacket and the hood and the whole thing and he was 147.

"Well, you take that off and he's still 145 or maybe less. Maybe less. Because the shoes, the whole thing, it's at least two pounds. So he actually didn't gain a thing. He gained zip, zero."

Schaefer said that De La Hoya's system was such that he couldn't even gain weight by drinking fluids after he weighed in.

"One of the doctors who was there was telling me Oscar was not even able after the weigh-in to retain water," Schaefer said. "Just with drinking water or Gatorade after the weigh-in, you usually move up. You gain two or three pounds (just) like that.

  

"And you weren't even able to do that. And that is actually dangerous because what that might do is, if you don't have enough liquids you might get brain damage. And that's why I was so insisting he go to the (hospital) even though Oscar wanted to go to the post-fight press conference."

Schaefer said that he got calls from boxing experts totally independent of Golden Boy in the aftermath of De La Hoya's shockingly lethargic performance - including trainer Emanuel Steward of Detroit and manager Rafael Mendoza of Mexico. He said they all told him the same thing, that fighters get old, but they don't get that old.

Schaefer said those inquiring minds wanted to know why De La Hoya - a man who had not fought at 147 in 7 1/2 years and had twice fought as high as 160 - would ever get down to as low as 143 when he did not have to?

"The fight's at 147, it's not at 143," Schaefer said. "You never have to make 143. What's the point? You gave up the biggest advantage. His biggest advantage was not his youth, it was not his speed. It was his weight, his size advantage. And he gave that away. 

"And Mendoza said, 'Look, a fighter makes weight for 15 minutes, 10 minutes before the weigh-in, five minutes during and right after the weigh-in. And that's it.' There's no reason to go to 145, let alone to 143 a month before - four pounds below the weight you're going to fight."

Schaefer began to speak in more animated tones. It was obvious he was highly perturbed about the way everything unfolded.

"This is just absolutely mind-blowing that something like that could happen," Schaefer said. "And I wasn't in charge of the strength and conditioning program. I'm not a fighter, I don't pretend to say I know the boxing game.

"But if you fight at 147, your biggest advantage in this particular fight is your weight, your size. Then why would you go to 143? Why would you weigh in at 145? Why would you give that up?"

Schaefer wondered about the diet De La Hoya was put on by strength and conditioning coach Rob Garcia.

"Why would you eat kangaroo meat, buffalo meat," Schaefer said. "And ... I think there was some other animal."

Schaefer was told the other was ostrich meat.

"Why would you eat that?" Schaefer said. "Obviously, once you hit 147, you know you can make weight. You don't need to go to 143. You stay at 147, you maintain. During camp you're probably at 150, 152. But you know you can make 147. You don't need to go and do all of that."

Schaefer was asked if he had called Garcia on the carpet. But Schaefer stopped short of blaming the affable Garcia, who most likely was just trying to do the best he could for De La Hoya.

"Well, you know, you can't change things," Schaefer said. "You can't turn back the clock. But I think something went wrong there."

Efforts to reach Garcia were unsuccessful. But Dr. Paul Wallace, a longtime physician for the California State Athletic Commission, spoke Wednesday on the subject. Wallace specializes in plastic surgery, but every medical physician is a basic doctor before he studies for his specialty and Wallace spoke knowledgeably about a situation that also has him somewhat baffled.

"Believe me, I don't think there has been anyone more outspoken than I have been with regards to his weight," Wallace said of De La Hoya. "I certainly have a tremendous number of questions regarding what diet he actually had throughout his training, the purpose behind it and certainly any type of medical experience from a nutritional

point of view."

Interestingly, Wallace said that the aforementioned meats De La Hoya was supposedly eating would have had little to do with his lack of energy.

"I'm not concerned with the fact that he ate the things people are saying he ate," he said. "Australians eat that all the time. All of my kids have eaten each one of those meats there. It's still protein."

Hall of Famer Carlos Palomino said in this space two weeks ago that it did not appear like De La Hoya had one carbohydrate in his system. Wallace echoed that sentiment.

 

"It didn't look like it," he said.

What seemed to shock Wallace most was the weight De La Hoya did not gain after the weigh-in.

"How could  that happen, in terms of he could only gain two pounds from the weigh-in to the fight?" Wallace said. "If you and I had drank the normal amount of, let's say, 48 to 64 ounces of water and had a full meal, we would have gained far more than the two pounds that he did.

"So there was something special happening to him and until the full story comes out, we'll never know."

When told that according to Schaefer, De La Hoya didn't gain a thing after the weigh-in, Wallace was even more surprised.

At the end of the conversation with Schaefer, he said he wanted to reiterate that he was not making excuses for De La Hoya. But to him, something was amiss.

"I've been around many fights now," Schaefer said. "Something is, or was, wrong there. That's a fact. Just like it is a fact that Pacquiao turned in the performance of his life. He really did."

Schaefer was right about Pacquiao. Chances are he would have stood a good chance of winning even if De La Hoya had been at his best - whatever that is at this point in his career; De La Hoya will be 36 in February.

A rematch? Well, after Guerrero answered reporters' questions, De La Hoya called to congratulate him on signing a five-year contract with Golden Boy. Schaefer then got on the phone and let De La Hoya know that a reporter wanted to know if he was retiring.

"He just laughed," Schaefer said.

Final curious thought: Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, said all along that should De La Hoya weigh one pound over the limit of 147, he would not let Pacquiao fight. It could be that De La Hoya gambled on some extreme measure to make sure there was no danger of that happening. Certainly, he would not want to suffer the same embarrassment that Jose Luis Castillo and the late Diego Corrales did when they weighed in several pounds over for a couple of fights. Had the fight been canceled, all those millions of dollars would have went down the drain, too.

If De La Hoya did gamble, he lost.

Pacquiao-Hatton Update

Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, said that negotiations are progressing in fine fashion for the Pacquiao-Hatton fight.

"I think everything is going very, very smoothly," Arum said Wednesday from Mexico, where he is vacationing. "We're reviewing paperwork and all of that sort of stuff. Everything is going according to plan. That is the fight we are concentrating on. That is the fight we hope to reach agreement on and I think that goes for both sides - Hatton's side and Pacquiao's side."

Schaefer said last week that one of the components still in question was the financial split. Arum said that gap is being bridged.

"I think over the week, by phone, we have made tremendous progress," Arum said.

Arum also confirmed that Las Vegas will be the city, but that the site is still to be determined. He surmised it would be either Thomas & Mack Center - where the Nevada Las Vegas Runnin' Rebels play basketball - or MGM Grand.

Arum Has Mosley's Back

Since Arum has a fighter - Antonio Margarito - who will face "Sugar" Shane Mosley on Jan. 24 in Los Angeles, we thought it would be interesting to find out what Arum thinks of the steroid scandal in which Mosley is currently embroiled.

Mosley has admitted to injecting himself with EPO and using the steroids "the cream" and "the clear." However, he has denied knowing exactly what they were, or that he was using anything that was illegal.

First off, Arum said he does not think Mosley's second victory over De La Hoya in 2003 should be changed to a no-contest. It was during training for that fight that Mosley was juiced up, knowingly or not.

"The answer is no," Arum said. "It's too late to change it. I don't think it's going to change anybody's life should it be changed. I don't think you can do that at this point. I know Shane and he is a nice kid. I truly believe he did it unintentionally."

Arum said he is convinced Mosley is 100 percent clean at this point.

"One thing is for sure, he is not doing it now and he has not done it in years," Arum said. "And it's not going to affect the Margarito fight."

Robert, The Friendly Ghost

Guerrero was down in the dumps 13 months ago when his wife Casey was diagnosed with leukemia. Then, as Casey battled the disease by going through all of those awful treatments, Guerrero was in the middle of arbitration with his now-former promoter, Dan Goossen. What a difference a little more than a year makes. Sure, the long-term contract Guerrero signed after winning his freedom in arbitration was good in Guerrero's mind. But Casey Guerrero is now in remission, which is good for Robert's heart.

"It's been a long year," a smiling Guerrero said. "She's in remission now. She's doing great and I thank God for that and the way everything's going right now."

Guerrero has moved up to super featherweight. His co-manager, Shelly Finkel, and Schaefer said Guerrero will eventually move up to lightweight. They are hopeful of putting him on the undercard of Mosley-Margarito.

Robert Morales covers boxing for the Los Angeles Daily News, ESPN.com, Long Beach Press-Telegram, and BoxingScene.com