Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya in Training

Oscar De La Hoya, WBO middleweight titleholder, has put in 11 weeks up at his manicured, log cabin styled 'training camp' at Big Bear Lake, in California. For De La Hoya, 31, to match up against world middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, Team De La Hoya realized a major key would be getting "The Golden Boy" back to a progressive workout routine or "periodization" program. And Big Bear equates to working at altitude, forcing the fighter's blood to progressively respond to increased rates of oxygenation. Training at altitude has been just what Team De La Hoya needed, after the near disastrous choice of working out in Arturo Gatti-land of Vero Beach, Florida for his bout against Germany's Felix Strum. The idea for Team De La Hoya going to Vero Beach was they believed that the hot, humid environment would accelerate De La Hoya's weight loss process, while providing them with a first class boxing haven, utilized by fighters from Antonio Tarver to trainers like Buddy McGirt. In fact, Team De La Hoya almost out witted themselves. Without the component of altitude training for the first time in 7 years, De La Hoya's performance rate was seriously compromised over the last quarter of the fight.