De La Hoya Said To Be in Fantastic Shape as Fight Nears

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Oscar De La Hoya is in  incredible shape and he is extremely comfortable at the stipulated weight of 147 pounds for his “Dream Match” with Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6.

In an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Golden Boy Promotions vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez said that “a lot of people don’t realize that 147 really is Oscar’s natural weight” and that in the past he used to build himself up to become a super welterweight at 154.

Gomez,  who grew up with De La Hoya in his boyhood days in East Los Angeles said De La Hoya had “to eat twice as much, he had to do weights but this time around he’s just not doing the weights, he’s eating well but not overeating and he’s just working out hard - very, very hard.”

Gomez said De La Hoya has got a couple of African-American sparring partners who are “very fast” besides southpaw Fred Tukes who is a welterweight from Atlanta who has been a sparring partner for many years and has a record of 7-1-1 with 5 knockouts according to boxrec.com.

Gomez said that Tukes was actually the primary sparring partner of former WBC/WBA and IBF light welterweight champion Kotsya  Tszyu and even Floyd Mayweather Jr. Gomez said  “Oscar really likes him because the guy is really good and he has very fast hands,” which indicated they were preparing for the hand speed of Pacquiao. .Another sparring partner is southpaw Edwin Valero who is rated No.1 lightweight by the WBC and No. 2 by the WBA.

Gomez admitted that Victor “Vicious” Ortiz had left the training camp not because he was fired after supposedly beating up De La Hoya in a sparring session but  because he was “not getting enough sparring and he’s got a big fight coming up on the undercard. So he wanted to make sure he has enough sparring so he left already.”  

Gomez said De La Hoya sparred eight rounds the other day and then again Saturday and looked great. He said De La Hoya “threw a bunch of punches’ but still felt fresh.

Gomez said that if De La Hoya “has the opportunity to knock him (Pacquiao) out he’s gonna do it. He is preparing like never before. He is really taking Manny seriously.”