Golden Boy inspired by trash talk

Monday, May 8, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

Oscar De La Hoya made it sound as if it were all an elaborate con job, with Ricardo Mayorga playing the role of dupe to perfection.

Mayorga, a Nicaraguan wildman with an unpredictable personality, needed a big-name opponent and the payday that would accompany it.

De La Hoya, by his own admission, was seeking a reason to be motivated after a pair of losses and an uninspired victory in his previous three fights.

De La Hoya suspected Mayorga, known to shoot his mouth off, would provide the motivation. That's good thinking, Oscar.

"Him talking, those things he said, got my blood boiling," De La Hoya said. "I needed it. It got me so revved up."

De La Hoya brought the sting to stirring completion Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, overwhelming Mayorga with his speed and power to earn a victory by sixth-round technical knockout. Using a strong jab and vicious combinations, De La Hoya sent Mayorga to the canvas in the first round and twice more in the sixth before referee Jay Nady called it off at 1:25 of Round 6.

De La Hoya (38-4, 30 knockouts) also displayed superb defense throughout the fight, blocking many of Mayorga's wild punches and making him miss with others.

Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, De La Hoya's friend and business partner, aptly described it as "one of the most complete performances of Oscar's career."

"There was a plan five months ago when we picked Mayorga that he was going to talk bad about me, talk dirty about me, and that would give me the motivation I need to get up for the fight," De La Hoya said. "The plan was he was going to talk smack and insult me and that motivated me."

Once he was picked to face De La Hoya, who is winding down a brilliant, Hall of Fame-caliber career in the ring, Mayorga started right in.

Mayorga claimed he was training with live chickens because they run away, which is what he expected De La Hoya to do. He put down De La Hoya's Mexican heritage and challenged his manhood. He promised to inflict permanent physical damage.

Then he got personal, insulting members of De La Hoya's family.

"He talked so much about my wife and Gabriel (his son)," De La Hoya said. ''I haven't been that motivated since Fernando Vargas (in 2002). This guy was perfect. He was throwing wild punches. My message was, I was going to stand up to the bully.

"He tried to fight recklessly, but I stood my ground. I knew I had some power to knock him out."

It was a vintage performance by De La Hoya, who knocked Mayorga down less than a minute into Round 1 with a searing left hook - a blow Mayorga's trainer Stacy McKinley said his fighter could not shake off.

"That stayed with him at least four more rounds," McKinley said.

Shane Mosley, who beat De La Hoya by 12-round decision in 2000 and again in 2003, said it looked as if Mayorga was ambushed by the shot in the first round.

"I always said (De La Hoya) had the best left hook in the business," Mosley said. "You never see it coming. I don't think Mayorga saw it coming."

De La Hoya won the WBC super welterweight belt with the victory. More significantly he set the stage for another megafight, likely to take place Sept. 16.

The consensus choice for an opponent among boxing fans appears to be unbeaten welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather Jr., acknowledged even by De La Hoya as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.

De La Hoya said that "out of respect," he would seek approval from his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. before pursuing such a matchup.

"Nothing is on the table right now," De La Hoya said. "No fight after this is a guarantee."

A beaten man, Mayorga (28-6-1), apologized to De La Hoya immediately after the fight "for all those things I said to you."

De La Hoya responded, "I forgive you."

"I'm not hurt," Mayorga said, "just heartbroken.''