Oscar driven by Forbes focus

De La Hoya: Training hard

There's not going to be any (fight in) 2009, no fights past December. I want to have these three fights and go out like a champion.

Oscar De La Hoya
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Oscar De La Hoya insists he will not be underestimating Steve Forbes on May 3 as he makes his return to the ring in preparation for a rematch with Floyd Mayweather.

The 'Golden Boy' will step inside the ring for the first time since last May, when he lost his WBC super welterweight title to Mayweather in the highest-grossing contest ever in boxing.

The 35-year-old is preparing for a rematch against 'The Pretty Boy' in September, but he insists he is not looking beyond Forbes.

De La Hoya is determined to put on a show in his first hometown fight since losing to Shane Mosley in 2000, and says he has been hitting the gym every bit as hard as he would be for Mayweather.

"There's no looking past Steve Forbes," De La Hoya said in a conference call on Wednesday.

"I've been training so hard for this, as if it's the most important fight of my life."

Focus

De La Hoya, 38-5, 30 KOs, will fight former IBF super featherweight champion Forbes at 150 pounds, 20 above Forbes' title-winning weight.

The last time De La Hoya overlooked an opponent many thought he should have lost to German middleweight Felix Sturm when clearly out of shape for the contest, with a clash with Bernard Hopkins on the horizon.

"That's never going to happen again," De La Hoya said. "That's the last thing I want at this stage of my career."

He said that Forbes "is coming to fight."

"It's his dream fight. But for him to beat me it's going to take something special because I'm going to put on a spectacular show."

The former multiple world champion wants three fights this year before retiring, and his final fight in December could well be against undefeated WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto.

"You can never count anybody out," he added. "You can never scratch anybody off the list.

"Obviously, there's Miguel Cotto, who's considered one of the best. But it's too far ahead."

Retirement

De La Hoya, the 1992 Olympic gold medallist, does insist he will retire at the end of the year though, and is hoping to go out in a blaze of glory with his three last fights.

"There's not going to be any (fight in) 2009, no fights past December. I want to have these three fights and go out like a champion," he said.

"It's the passion and love I have for boxing. I love fighting. I love training. I'm always looking for something new.

"In this training camp, I finally learned how to relax in the ring and not fight tense."