Ricardo ‘El Matador’ Mayorga
Camp Notes
from Miami
Photos: David Martin Warr - DKP
MIAMI—World Boxing Council super welterweight champion
Ricardo “El Matador” Mayorga will be fighting one of the
most popular boxers in history on May 6, “The Golden
Boy” Oscar De La Hoya, and his training regimen is
evidence that he is taking this fight seriously.
Mayorga started his training here on Feb. 23 at the new
Fight Club gym. The
first interval of training began with a 3-mile morning
jog each day at 7
a.m. After his jog, El Matador eats breakfast and takes
a nap.
Gym training begins at 1 p.m. His work consists of
stretching, skipping
rope, exercises and strength and conditioning for an
hour. Then it’s into
the ring where his coaches are stressing technique with
pads for 30 minutes.
The workout concludes with warm-down exercises. |
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During the
second week of March the training schedule changed to include 30
minutes per day of sparring. The adjusted training schedule
starts at the
gym beginning at 1 p.m. Road work was increased to four-to-five
miles per
day beginning around 7 p.m.
Mayorga and his co-trainer Stacy McKinley were interviewed
during today’s
media workout in Miami.
“We have already achieved 90 rounds of boxing, which is a large
number,”
McKinley said. “We’ve also put in 50 rounds of pad work and an
equal number
of rounds for shadow boxing. We’ve also put in 30 rounds with
the heavy bag
so far.
“Right now, we’re ramping down the training regimen to avoid
peaking too
soon. Next week, we’ll pick it back up so Ricardo peaks on May
6.
“Ricardo is already in as good condition as he was for his last
three
fights. Come May 6, he’ll have moved up two more levels.
That’s what I
call the fifth level or world championship condition. That’s
what it takes
to survive at the top. Ricardo has always been dangerous, but
imagine what
he’s going to be like when he arrives in perfect condition.
“I co-trained Ricardo for both the fights with Vernon Forrest
where he was
in excellent condition. He will be in better condition for this
fight. Not
only that, he’ll be stronger for this fight because he’ll be at
the
154-pound limit as opposed to the suffering he had to endure to
make 147.
“Everyone knows this is a dangerous fight for Oscar, including
Oscar
himself. We know this is a great opportunity for us and some
members of the
media have forgotten how talented Ricardo really is.
“I left Ricardo after the Spinks fight because I didn’t agree
with the
strategy to try to box Spinks. Now he’s doing what he does
best. He’s a
banger. Oscar is a better boxer than Ricardo. Likewise, we
know Ricardo is
a better fighter than Oscar is. Our strategy is to make this
man stand and
fight. De La Hoya will have no choice. No running room, no
ducking and
hiding. We are training to fight, and I mean fight, for 12 full
rounds.
“Oscar’s got a good chin; I think Ricardo’s is better. Oscar’s
got heart,
but he doesn’t have the heart Ricardo has shown. If you notice,
when it
gets tough, Oscar will give it up. I saw him do it with Felix
Trinidad and
Bernard Hopkins. Mayorga will make him do the same thing.
Oscar’s a front
runner. Once you catch up to him, you can hunt him down.
Ricardo’s a
gunslinger. He’ll unload both guns from the first round.”
Mayorga was equally defiant meeting with the media.
“It
takes discipline to become a champion and even more to
remain a
champion. I am being disciplined in my training camp.
I have even tailed
off the drinking and cigarettes.
“My motto for this fight is: I’ll live and die for my
championship. De La
Hoya is coming into my danger zone. The fight is being
called danger zone
because that’s where Oscar is headed. He’s stubborn and
he disrespected me
during the media tour and that will be his downfall come
May 6.
“I don’t have to prepare mentally all that much for this
match because I’m
always ready to fight. That’s what I am, a Nicaraguan
street fighter.
Oscar is the one that needs to prepare mentally to face
me.
“Honestly, I have not watched a single tape of Oscar De
La Hoya’s fights. I
already know what his weaknesses are. He is crazy to
think he can try to
stand up in front of me and take the punishment I will
deliver. Oscar’s
washed up. He was great at one time but logic and
Mother Nature tell you
he’s washed up now.
“I have my work cut out for me because I’m fighting in
his backyard but I
would fight him in the backyard of his home in front of
all of his fans and
still beat him.
“I don’t want
to leave the decision up to the judges so I’m going to knock
him out before the sixth round.
“I have been sparring with live chickens as they emulate
‘chicken’ De La
Hoya best. They run just like he does. Most people don’t
understand that
of all the fighters in boxing, Oscar is the one I like least.
He’s a pretty
boy and it makes me want to defeat him.
“He shouldn’t have gone down from that body shot that Bernard
Hopkins threw.
Everyone knows he took a dive in that fight.
“If he’s a man like he says he is, he should show his Mexican
pride and
fight with me. I know he is not the fighter he once was but he
can still
stand and fight me like a man.
“My strategy is to have a larger punch output and knock Oscar
out. I don’t
want to hear him back out of the fight because his butt hurts or
he hurt his
pinky finger. I want him to come to fight.”
Tickets for De La Hoya vs. Mayorga, “Danger Zone,”
priced at $1250, $950,
$750, $350 and $150 are on sale now at the MGM Grand
Garden Arena box office
and are also available at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster
locations (Tower
Records/WOW!, Smith’s Food and Drug Centers,
Robinsons-May stores and Ritmo
Latino). Ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per
person. To charge by
phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at
(702) 474-4000.
Tickets also will be available for purchase at
www.mgmgrand.com or
www.ticketmaster.com.
The De La Hoya vs. Mayorga pay-per-view telecast,
beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6
p.m. PT on May 6 has a suggested retail price of
$49.95, will be
distributed domestically by HBO Pay-Per-View and will be
available to more
than 56 million pay-per-view homes. The telecast will be
available in
high-definition television for those viewers who are
HDTV capable. HBO
Pay-Per-View is the leading supplier of event
programming to the
pay-per-view industry. For your daily De La Hoya vs.
Mayorga fight week
updates, log onto www.HBOPPV.com.
