De La Hoya has urge to fight

Oscar De La Hoya still has the itch. And he's going to keep scratching it.

The former champion said 2008 is probably his last year as an active fighter, and he plans to compete at least twice and possibly three times.

"I want to go out with a big bang," said De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions co-promoted Saturday's WBC welterweight title fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand Garden. "My mind and my body says I can do two or three more fights. I still can compete."

De La Hoya said a rematch with Mayweather is one possibility, fighting Hatton in England is another and squaring off with Miguel Cotto, who recently beat Shane Mosley, is a third option.

"Those are the three guys I want," De La Hoya said. "I want to have a classic fight, like there were in the 1980s."

De La Hoya said he has a schedule in mind, with the first fight coming during Cinco de Mayo weekend in May, the second coming in September during Mexican Independence Day weekend, with the third and final one in December, preferably in Los Angeles (De La Hoya grew up in East L.A.) and hopefully on free television.

"I'd like to give something back to the fans for my final fight," he said.

• PACQUIAO'S PLANS -- Things are going to be different this time as Manny Pacquiao prepares for his March 15 rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez at Mandalay Bay.

Freddie Roach, who trains Pacquiao, said his fighter will spend less time in the Philippines preparing for Marquez than he did for his victory over Marco Antonio Barrera in October.

"We'll do two weeks in the Philippines, get our conditioning work in there, then we'll go to Los Angeles for eight weeks," Roach said. "We won't start sparring until six weeks out."

In 2004, Pacquiao floored Marquez early, only to see him rally to a split draw.

Roach, who was in town over the weekend working the corner of Peter Manfredo Jr. in his fight with Jeff Lacy on the Mayweather-Hatton undercard, said Pacquiao will face fewer distractions this time. For the Barerra fight, Pacquiao spent the majority of his training time back home, and he had difficulty focusing at times.

"His wanting to train in L.A. tells me he's going to be focused for this fight," Roach said. "We're going to be ready for Marquez's counterpunching style, and we'll get the right sparring partners who will push Manny."

• HOPKINS BACK IN VEGAS? -- If Bernard Hopkins fights Joe Calzaghe next spring in the United States, the bout could find its way to Las Vegas.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said he has had preliminary discussions about having the fight at Yankee Stadium. Hopkins has said he would like to fight in the ballpark, which will be torn down after the 2008 season.

But Schaefer said while fighting in the Bronx might be nice from a historical perspective, going to Las Vegas might make more sense financially.

"How would it look if we only got 30,000? The place would be empty," he said. "If we go to the MGM, say, or Mandalay Bay, we sell it out."

Calzaghe and Hopkins were together Friday in the media center and at the weigh-in. Both times, they traded trash talk and nearly got into it on the stage at the weigh-in.

Hopkins' last trip to Las Vegas proved costly. He was fined a record $200,000 by the Nevada Athletic Commission after a dust-up with Winky Wright at their weigh-in in July.

At the time, Hopkins said he was through fighting in Nevada. Now, he apparently is willing to forget about that.

"I'm fine if it's here," he said, then added jokingly, "I'll just pay the money up front this time."