De La Hoya wins, spins

May 5, 2008

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

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

For those not briefed on De La Hoya's retirement tour plans, 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. 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 an announced 27,000 to see what was little more than a homecoming tuneup against the undersized Forbes.

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 down Forbes 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 against Forbes as he has in many of his fights.

"I wanted to get on my toes and challenge my conditioning," he said. "I'm extremely confident now I'm going to fight 12 hard rounds in September."

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Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun

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