Oscar says his dancing days are finished

Ken Peters

Tuesday, March 21, 2000 | 10:47 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- Oscar De La Hoya plans to work on his New Year's resolution when he fights unbeaten Shane Mosley.

The only loss of his career actually was a blessing in disguise, De La Hoya said.

He built an early lead against Felix Trinidad in their fight last September, but De La Hoya danced and didn't throw enough punches in the later rounds, allowing to Trinidad to win the decision.

"At 12:01 of the new century, I thought, 'Hey, what were you doing? Wake up and smell the coffee and fight the way you used to fight,' " De La Hoya said. "I'm going to stick to my game plan, just keep going straight ahead."

In his only fight this year, De La Hoya knocked out Derrell Coley in the seventh round of their Feb. 26 bout in New York.

De La Hoya and Mosley were at a news conference Monday at Staples Center, where their June 17 bout will be held.

De La Hoya was presented the WBC welterweight championship belt the sanctioning body reclaimed from Trinidad, but De La Hoya isn't ready to consider it his just yet.

"On June 17, this belt goes along with the title," De La Hoya said. "The best man will win it."

When Trinidad moved up to super welterweight and did not defend his 147-pound title, the WBC stripped him of the belt.

Mauricio Sulaiman, son of WBC president Jose Sulaiman, presented the belt to De La Hoya.

Smiling, De La Hoya and Mosley staged a playful tug-of-war over the belt.

"I'm ready to go on and take the WBC belt away from Oscar," said Mosley, 34-0, with 32 knockouts. "That belt right there is mine."

De La Hoya is a product of East Los Angeles, and now lives in Whittier. Mosley lives in Pomona, and the two natives of the Los Angeles area have fought before, meeting in the junior Golden Gloves several times when they were around 10 or 11 years old.

No one seems to know how many times they were matched as youths, although one longtime boxing observer said Mosley beat De La Hoya each time.

De La Hoya, 27, said he had no recollection of the bouts.

Mosley, whose $4.5 million plus a percentage of pay-per-view will be his largest paycheck, thanked De La Hoya.

"A lot of people said he wouldn't fight me, that he would move up or something," Mosley, 28, said.

"But he proved he wanted to take this fight, and I thank him for that."