By Rick Reeno

Oscar De La Hoya officially announced to the media during a live telephone conference call that Freddie Roach will train him for the May 5 defense of his WBC junior middleweight title against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Freddie Roach said the fight is a must win situation for him. He said that Team De La Hoya will be ready to do everything it takes to win the fight. He wants De La Hoya to be very active in the fight to force Mayweather to throw a lot of punches, which could expose his well documented bad hands.

“It's a must win situation for me. Winning is what counts. You will see the best Oscar De La Hoya in your life fighting Mayweather. Mayweather is the pound-pound best,” Roach said. “We will do everything it takes to win the fight. That's the bottom line. This is a huge fight. Making adjustments will be the biggest part of the fight. A lot of it depends on how Mayweather wants to fight. We want to be really active in the fight and busy.”

De La Hoya said that he knew from the start that Roach would ultimately become the man to replace Floyd Mayweather, Sr. as his trainer. He said that Floyd Sr.' demand of $2 million dollars did not play a role in the decision. He was more worried about the elder Mayweather's heart being in the fight against his son.

“He (Roach) is a great trainer. He does have the tools necessary to show me show to beat Mayweather. When you have a trainer like Freddie Roach that is master of dissecting opponents and figuring out their styles, you have no worries,” De La Hoya said. “Freddie was my guy from the beginning. In my heart I already knew it was Freddie. I need that strategy, that sense of being secure. Freddie Roach is a secure trainer in the corner. I need that positive energy. I will step in the ring as the world champion and leave the ring as the world champion.”

Roach did touch on the subject of possible conflicts with several of his fighters that are going to see action in the next few months, including Manny Pacquiao’s who may fight in April.

“I talked to Manny, he said congratulations, take the job. If he fights in that time frame, he will have no problem with my assistant Justin Fortune training him. He's happy for me. He knows this is a huge opportunity for me,” Roach said.

“I'll be training Manny in the month of Feb, if the fight (in April) comes off, until I will leave to Puerto Rico to train with Oscar and then Justin will be in charge. There is no one man show in my gym. There are assistants who are very capable, and they will take care of the boys.”

“My fighters are professionals and they know what to expect. We will be communicating on the phones to see how everyone is doing. Robert Guererro, Peter Manfredo, and Israel Vazquez - I sat down and talked with all of them. Not a problem at this point.”