Oscar De La Hoya Media Training Day Quotes

Olympic Gold Medalist and ten-time world champion in six weight classes, Oscar De La Hoya opened his training camp on Wednesday to over 100 media members who made the trip up to the secluded mountains of Big Bear, California to observe the boxing legend’s training regiment first hand as he prepares for his December 6 "Dream Match" against The Ring magazine pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, live in the USA on HBO Pay-Per-View.

Along with head trainer Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain, training consultant Angelo Dundee and the rest of his team, De La Hoya welcomed the impressive turnout of media members and gave his insight on his upcoming bout.

OSCAR DE LA HOYA ON ANGELO DUNDEE

"It’s great having him here in camp because of what he brings to the table. It’s not necessarily that he is here doing everyday teaching. But he is an inspiration and just listening to the stories he has to tell of all of the great champions he has worked with is motivation for me. To think that I have these two men—Nacho Beristain and Angelo Dundee—in my corner, two legends who combined have trained so many world champions is mind-boggling and makes me train harder."

ON FIGHTING

"Obviously and depending on the outcome of December 6, the way I feel right now I could fight forever. This is what I love to do and I feel great doing it. The sparring, trying hard to be as fit and ready as I can, is just what I my mind and body are always willing to do when I am getting ready for a fight. I don’t know when I will be done fighting because as you asked me today, I feel like I can continue on. If your body and mind is right, and you take care of yourself, you can last a long time in this sport.

"I have always wanted to fight the best out there, the most dangerous and the best match-ups. That is how I ended up wanting to fight Pacquiao. He is the best out there. I don’t think weight will be a factor and this is the type of challenge that motivates me."

ON MANNY PACQUIAO AS A THREAT

"The problems I see that will be heralds for me that night are that Manny Pacquiao is a southpaw with amazing speed. He is also young and powerful. But we are working on all that in camp and we will know how to neutralize him. We will be well prepared.

"I am bringing my weight down to 147 and actually am the lightest I have been in a long time in my career (De La Hoya weighed 145 yesterday morning). He obviously is coming up in weight. How does anyone really know what is going to happen? No one knows for sure what is going to happen when I fight a guy with his power and speed and he has to deal with me.

"I am fortunate to have a worldwide stage that has paid attention to my career and Manny Pacquiao has a huge following too. Now we are all over the place and the whole world is paying attention to this fight and wondering what the outcome is going to be. That in and of itself, is a thrill for me to be a part of another great event.

"Throughout my career, I have been extremely fortunate to have so many people who have been drawn to the sport of boxing because they were interested in my career. I realize I am a catalyst for the sport and I don’t take that responsibility lightly. That is another reason I try to always compete at the highest level and give fans great fights by having match-ups with competition that gives me the most challenge and threat."

ON FREDDIE ROACH

"I have great respect for Freddie Roach. I think he is one of the top trainers in the business. He just seems to be a little confused with his comments. When you think about what he is saying, and I am going to throw Bernard Hopkins and Vasquez in the mix here, he has said that all of us should retire once we stopped training with him. Now look at Hopkins’ last fight, Vasquez also came back as a winner too. I did the same in my last fight and we will see what happens with this one. We all came back to win without him as our trainer.

"What is ironic to me is that all three of us lost when Freddie was training us, so you have to wonder if it isn’t the trainer himself and he just trained us wrong. "

TRAINING IN BIG BEAR

"Training in Big Bear has really motivated me for this fight. It’s a different kind of training camp from Puerto Rico where I have been training for my last several fights. It has actually been six years since I was here and it is a whole different experience. It actually is much harder as the altitude gives you another element to deal with when you are training and out running the mountains.

"The altitude (6,752 feet) is a killer, and you have to train twice as hard just to catch your breath; to get in shape. But returning here is the best decision I could have made. The first few weeks were really hard, but now I have settled into the training and it’s amazing how great I feel with weeks to go.