From the first news conference announcing the fight, Steve Forbes has talked about being "overlooked" by Oscar De La Hoya for tonight's non-title 150-pound fight at the Home Depot Center.
That may be a powerful motivational tool. Yet almost everything De La Hoya has done -- from selecting Forbes over two other contenders to showing up in Los Angeles this week at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds when he can afford to be plumper -- speaks to the Golden Boy's stated fierce desire to treat Forbes, a tough opponent, seriously.
No one denies, however, that this fight is in preparation for De La Hoya's Sept. 20 rematch with unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"To the extent that Oscar is setting up that fight with Floyd, yes, he's right that Oscar's expecting to win," said Eric Gomez, the Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker. "What Stevie doesn't understand is that Oscar has been through this [tune-up fight] before, and he remembers he didn't do well.
"So he's conditioned his mind, not only on the fact he wants revenge against Mayweather, but that he needs to be sharp against Stevie. He's locked and loaded."
De La Hoya (38-5, 30 knockouts) insists he will no way duplicate his sluggish performance in 2004 against Felix Sturm, a middleweight who some at ringside felt won the fight that came three months before De La Hoya's knockout loss to Bernard Hopkins. All three judges scored the bout 115-113 in De La Hoya's favor.
"I did look past Felix Sturm," De La Hoya acknowledged. "I didn't train well, was slow. I felt like a loser. It's a hard lesson to learn, but I learned it. . . . I need this, someone to stir something inside of me."
While other prominent fighters go through doubts about retirement, De La Hoya, 35, said he will walk away from the sport after taking one more fight after Mayweather.
He admitted this week that while he ranks his ring success -- 10 world titles in six divisions -- "a good career . . . I've fought everybody there is to fight," he also regrets leaving some of his best effort "on the table," in going 7-5 in his last dozen fights.
"I want to beat the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world before I leave," De La Hoya said.
That plan required a selection of former super-featherweight champion Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs) as the opponent. De La Hoya had the option of picking either unbeaten, 26-year-old welterweight Dmitriy Salita (28-0) or personable International Boxing Federation light-welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (24-1, 5 KOs) for this bout that could draw a capacity crowd of 27,000.
