De La Hoya believes he can lose more weight to fight Hatton
Oscar De La Hoya has revealed that he has found taking the weight off to fight Manny Pacquiao so easy that a light-welterweight clash with Ricky Hatton could be on the agenda.
The Golden Boy has not fought at 147lb since 2001, but will take on Pacquiao on December 6 at the welterweight limit - which is also the first time the Filipino great has carried so much weight into the ring.
But De La Hoya, who tipped the scales at 154lb when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jnr last year, dropped the excess weight so quickly during the early stages of training in the Big Bear Mountains that a superfight with Ricky Hatton at 140lb is no longer a pipedream.
"Training camp is going well, I've been weighing 145 pounds now for the last three weeks," he said last week. "The weight is no problem - I feel strong.
Comfortable
"I did feel a little light-headed and weak, but now that I have gotten used to it and now that weeks have passed by, I feel fast and strong and comfortable at welterweight.
"And I'm even thinking of going back down to 140 after this fight. I've fought at 130 all the way up to 160. Now I'm going back down to 145. So in a couple of years I'll be hitting 135.
"My way of training and my way of eating has just been very strict, and therefore it's been easy for me to make this weight.
"It's very important for us since I haven't made 147 since I fought Arturo Gatti. I just want to make sure that I feel comfortable, that I feel strong, that I feel full of energy.
"I want to make my body adapt to this weight class. And, now that we've been on weight for several weeks now, I can eat whatever I want."
Wembley dream
All of which is music to the ears of Ricky Hatton, who believes the fight of his career is just around the corner against the winner of De La Hoya-Pacquiao.
"My dream would be to have it at Wembley, without a doubt, and it's a strong possibility," he told Sky Sports News.
"Oscar's never fought in Britain and he's said he'd like to tick it off on his resume of what he's achieved.
"We got 58,000 at the City of Manchester stadium for Juan Lazcano - if we can't get 100,000 at Wembley for Oscar De la Hoya, then I'd be very surprised."
And Richard Schaefer, chief executive of De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, has suggested the wheels are already in motion for a mid-summer fight between De La Hoya and Hatton.
"We are looking at staging it at a big stadium in the UK," he told The Sun. "But the arena needs to be covered because of the unpredictable weather. My idea, and I haven't spoken to Hatton's camp about this yet, is to have the fight on a Sunday.
"I was thinking that big sporting events are on a Sunday afternoon in America, like the Superbowl, so why not this fight? It could be at 10pm in the UK which would be the afternoon in America.
"It would be a huge event with maybe even a pop concert leading into a great undercard and then the fight.
"Oscar against Ricky could be the biggest event in boxing. It would be two great fighters, who come to fight and are loved by the fans.
"The winner could then fight Floyd Mayweather who, of course, has already boxed both fighters."