De La Hoya unleashes verbal jabs back at Mayweather Jr.

Oscar De La Hoya unloaded on Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Wednesday, responding to months of trash-talking from Mayweather by vowing to punish boxing's pound-for-pound kingpin for his harsh comments.

De La Hoya, who on May 5 defends his WBC super welterweight title against Mayweather at the MGM Grand Garden in what could be the largest-grossing fight in boxing history, called his opponent a villain during a conference call and promised to make him pay for his nearly nonstop taunts.

De La Hoya praised Mayweather's speed but said he thinks he will be able to match it in what is shaping up to be the signature bout of each man's career.

"He's asked for it, and he's going to get it," De La Hoya said of Mayweather, who willingly has accepted the role of bad guy in the promotion.

De La Hoya said he didn't buy the notion that there needed to be a good guy and a bad guy and pointed to the 1999 heavyweight title unification bouts between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield as proof.

The first bout, on March 13, 1999, raked in 1.2 million pay- per-view sales. The second, on Nov. 13, 1999, attracted a state-record live paid gate of $16.8 million to the Thomas & Mack Center. That record will fall May 5, as the De La Hoya-Mayweather bout will attract a live gate in excess of $19 million.

"One of the biggest fights to date was with Lennox Lewis and Evander, and nobody was a villain there," De La Hoya said. "Both are respectful and nice, but people wanted to see that fight. The fact that (Mayweather) said he's cast as the villain, well, it's the way he is."

Mayweather, who long has sought a bout with De La Hoya, has mocked his manner of speech, has chided him for not getting up in his 2004 bout with then-middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, has called him a phony and has taunted him for all manner of shortcomings.

When it was mentioned to Mayweather that De La Hoya recently said he is in the best shape of his life, Mayweather began to laugh uproariously.

"He always says that. Always," Mayweather said. "Before every Oscar fight, he says he's in the best shape of his life, then about the seventh or eighth round, he gets tired and he can't finish. And then he makes excuses about it.

"The thing that gets me is that people take it seriously when he says that. I want to see him prove it. That's more important than talk. Prove it. Fight in the championship rounds like you say you're going to fight in the first round."

De La Hoya, who also took repeated and thinly veiled shots at Top Rank's Bob Arum, his former promoter, said he thinks his size will make a difference in the outcome. The bout will be Mayweather's first at 154 pounds and third above 147. De La Hoya has fought as a super welterweight or higher since 2001.

He said his motivation has increased as Mayweather has continued the verbal assault, and he promised to jump on Mayweather at the opening bell.

And De La Hoya said he won't have pity if Mayweather's notoriously brittle hands are bothering him.

"If I smell blood, I'll go for it," De La Hoya said. "It's who I am. I close the show. It's like a wounded animal. When you see a wounded animal, you have to go after it and attack. If that happens to Mayweather, I'll fight as hard as I can to take advantage of the situation."