De La Hoya says Mayorga uses hatred for self-motivation
BY BERNARD FERNANDEZ
Knight Ridder Newspapers
LAS VEGAS - Ricardo Mayorga isn't the first of Oscar De La Hoya's opponents to publicly pronounce his animosity toward the too-handsome, too-rich, too-perfect superstar.
Rafael Ruelas, said that De La Hoya's fascination with golf was proof that he had forsaken his East Los Angeles roots. Golf, Ruelas sneered, was a sissy game for rich white boys, not for proud Chicanos from the barrio.
De La Hoya shrugged off the taunts, then teed off on Ruelas, stopping him in two rounds in their May 6, 1995 bout.
Fernando Vargas traced his contempt for De La Hoya to an incident in 1993, when both fighters were training in Big Bear, Calif. Vargas, then an amateur, claimed he slipped on an icy trail in the early morning and tumbled down a hill into a snowbank as De La Hoya and his entourage, laughing derisively, jogged past without stopping or offering assistance.
De La Hoya paid no heed to Vargas' rage, taking him out with a blizzard of punches in their Sept. 14, 2002, junior middleweight unification showdown.
At least Ruelas and Vargas believed they had reasons for disliking the "Golden Boy." Mayorga - who is a native of Nicaragua and revels in his political incorrectness - almost is clutching at straws when he describes why he detests De La Hoya as he has no previous opponent.
"(Julio Cesar) Chavez was one of my great idols," Mayorga said, recalling De La Hoya's bloody, fourth-round stoppage of the Mexican superstar on June 7, 1996. "When he faced Oscar, Oscar was pretty much in his prime and Chavez was well past his. And at that point, I remember seeing him beat Chavez up.
"I remember saying to myself that I was going to avenge that loss and make Oscar pay for what he did to one of my idols. And I will. I will detach his retina or stop his heart."
De La Hoya (37-4, 29 KOs), who challenges WBC super welterweight champion Mayorga (28-5-1, 23 KOs) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand, seems almost astounded by Mayorga's rationale for resorting to a new low in gutter tactics.
"That's the funniest thing I've ever heard," De La Hoya said, pointing out that he, too, had idolized Chavez as a young fighter coming up. "He pulled that one out of leftfield."
It is by now something of a ritual for Mayorga to show up for postfight press conference with a beer in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other. He blithely dismisses most opponents as maricons, derogatory Spanish slang for gays, unknowing and uncaring of their actual sexual orientation.
But Mayorga went a step beyond his usual crassness when, during a promotional tour with De La Hoya to hype their HBO Pay-Per-View bout, he said he would loan the "Golden Boy" his championship belt for 24 hours in exchange for one night of sex with De La Hoya's singer-wife, Millie.
Not one to normally engage in trash-talking, De La Hoya momentarily lost his cool and responded with a remark about Mayorga's mother. Emotions have been running high ever since, and each man has vowed to inflict as much pain upon the other as is allowed within the rules.
De La Hoya, for one, believes Mayorga resorts to personal insults because hatred is the only match that can ignite his inner flame.
"We were shooting a commercial. That's where we first met," De La Hoya said. "We shook hands and everything. Then all of a sudden, he flips and starts getting emotional. It was weird. It was like he was revving himself up."
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