I don't know if any of you have been following the drama surrounding Oscar De La Hoya and his training situation. It's a bizarre story. In brief, in case you've missed it so far: Oscar, who is normally trained by Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s father, has been confronted with the fact that Mayweather Sr. is not only unsentimental, he's also a massive opportunist.
Mayweather Sr., who is estranged from his son, first said he wouldn't train Oscar to fight his own boy. That proved a short lived bluff. First he said he would do it after all. Then he said he wanted two million dollars--by far the highest a trainer has ever been paid for a single night--an astronomical and outrageous figure. Mayweather Sr. has been an effective trainer, but nobody deserves that kind of dough, not even someone who, like Mayweather, purports to have a magic secret that will allow Oscar to win.
Oscar turned him down, but there was speculation that he was waffling when he didn't announce a new trainer. But now he has, and he's landed one of the best: Freddy Roach. Thumbs up to Oscar for making the right call here. It's hard to imagine a better replacement than Roach. His other boxers--including such luminaries as Manny Pacquiao, James Toney, Robert Guerrero, and Scott's favorite, Israel Vazquez--will probably be trained by his able assistant, Justin Fortune, while Roach devotes his attention to the biggest fight of the century so far.
How big? Only 5,400 tickets were left for the public after various insiders reserved their seats, and those sold out in three hours.