FLOYD “JOY” & THE GOLDEN BOY – READY
TO BRING PAIN TO “SUGAR” SHANE
(Exclusive interview)
By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist
Big Bear, CA (IB – September 2, 2003) – Just spoke to Floyd “Joy” Mayweather
(trainer for Oscar De La Hoya) and Floyd is in high spirits and feels very
optimistic about Oscar’s rematch with Sugar Shane Mosley coming up on September
13th in Las Vegas.
The long-anticipated rematch is set to take place on September 13th, live from
the MGM Grand Hotel & and Casino and will be televised on HBO Pay-Per-View. This
bout is a sell-out and has a lot at stake for both fighters. This fight will be
for the WBA & WBC Jr. Middleweight World Championship belts.
Oscar De La Hoya (36-2, 29 KOs) vs. Shane Mosley (38-2,
35 KOs) at the 154lb weight class.
In speaking with Floyd today, here is the latest from training camp.
Q: Floyd – How is the training camp going?
A: Good. Oscar did hurt his hand as you have heard. However, come September
13th, his hand will be fine. Oscar has an old injury to his left hand that may
never totally go away, but he is able to deal with it and he will be able to
take care of business. He definitely wants this fight to go ahead and take place
& he will be ready.
Q. What will be different this time around?
A: The whole fight this time will be different. Oscar will control the fight
with his jab, set up the straight right hands, and Shane will have trouble even
finding Oscar.
Q: So you believe that Oscar will have the greater speed?
A: It’s not actually about speed. It’s all about timing. You can throw your
punches too fast or throw them too slow. If your timing is not correct, you will
not be at the right distance to land anyway. It’s the same as in life, you can
be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or be in the right place at the right
time.
Q: In their last fight, they weighed 147lbs, will the difference be the size of
154lbs that will give Oscar an advantage?
A: The size will not have anything to do with it. I hear that Shane is bulking
up for this fight by lifting weights. That does not correspond to boxing. If you
want to lift weights, you need to be corresponding to Mr. America or Mr.
Universe competition, not Boxing. I tried to tell the Vargas team the same
thing. Look what happened to Vargas!
Q: Will we see even new improvements in Oscar that we haven’t seen before?
A: Oscar is an old fighter, in the sense that he has been around for a long time
and has accomplished a great deal of success. So there is not a lot that Oscar
needs to change. He would not have been that successful if he did a lot of
things wrong. I have spent time working on the things that he did wrong against
Shane in their first bout. This time, Oscar will be more agile, and be more
flexible. You will see great torso movement that will make Shane miss, and
we will make him pay!
While I do not want to steal Floyd’s thunder by sharing his poems, he was
gracious enough to share an excerpt from one of them. It goes like this:
“FLOYD JOY AND THE GOLDEN BOY
WE’ LL SHOCK YOUR MIND
WE’RE TWO OF A KIND
WE’RE GONNA KICK SHANE’S ASS & PUT THE PAST BEHIND”
This should be a fight fans delight. Be sure to tune in on September 13th to see
if this fight will result in redemption for De La Hoya, or a repeat for Sugar
Shane Mosley.
You have just gone InsideBoxing.com
Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com
| Home |