LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La Hoya was sitting in his 29th floor suite overlooking the Las Vegas Strip, cuddling his Yorkshire terrier on his lap.
"Kind of a wussy dog," someone said.
"Just like her owner," De La Hoya replied, laughing.
There was a time when some fans might have agreed, particularly after De La Hoya danced around the last three rounds to give away a fight to Felix Trinidad four years ago.
But when De La Hoya fights a rematch tonight with Shane Mosley, he will enter the ring with a nastiness that never was part of the Golden Boy formula.
It came out in a savage knockout of Fernando Vargas last year, possibly his biggest win. De La Hoya vows tonight's fight will be quite different from his loss to Mosley at 147 pounds three years ago.
"If he thinks he's going to face the same fighter, he's got another thing coming," De La Hoya said. "I'm very, very motivated for this fight."
De La Hoya, 30, risks his WBC and WBA 154-pound titles, but there is more at stake than gaudy plastic belts.
If he wins, he will settle a score that still irritates him, bank $20-million or so and look for bigger and better things, possibly against middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.
If he loses, De La Hoya says his career will be over.
"I've trained so hard for this fight, like never before," De La Hoya said. "If I lost the way I am now, what's the motivation? Why am I in the sport? Yes, I will retire if I lose."
Oddsmakers do not figure that will happen, making De La Hoya a 2-1 pick. The scheduled 12-round bout is expected to begin about 11:30 p.m. Both fighters weighed in Friday at the class limit of 154 pounds.
"This is going to be a very competitive fight," De La Hoya said. "I'm expecting the toughest fight of my career."
That is exactly what Mosley gave him the first time, using speed to frustrate De La Hoya, then outslugging him in the late rounds to win a split decision.
Mosley (38-2, 35 KOs) sees much the same thing happening again, while conceding that De La Hoya (36-2, 29 KOs) is bigger and throws punches with more intent these days.
"I can read his power shots, and I know when he's going to throw his right hand," said Mosley, 32. "His whole thing is for me to come to him so he can throw his combinations. ... I'm not a flat-footed fighter, and I'm not going to do that."
