Boxing: Don't write De La Hoya off

Oscar De La Hoya will come face-to-face with the man many believe will be his 'executioner' today (Tuesday June 29) at a press conference at the Regent Beverly Whilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The pair meet in Las Vegas on September 18 in what is still, despite their poor showings on June 5 in warm-up fights, an eagerly anticipated super-fight.

Before his September 2001 fight with Felix Trinidad, Hopkins got all the way inside Tito's head by repeatedly enraging the Puerto Rican powerhouse at press conferences. The 39-year-old Hopkins uses smack-talk, insults and hype to probe his opponent's mind-set and now the ink is dry on his $10million contract with De La Hoya, the Philadelphia fighting machine has already begun his assault on Oscar's confidence.