De La Hoya/Forbes prefight

Is about to get underway...I'm at my position and am getting everything ready to go. OK, we're ready to rock. At the moment you're not missing anything. Larry Merchant, who's wearing a stylish beige suit and white spread color shirt, is interviewing Oscar. At the moment they're talking about Golden Boy Promotions and how they're going to develop young stars after DLH retires. They're back live and Lamps is pointing out all of the celebs--the guy that plays Eric Murphy on Entourage is in the house, as is an actress who did a cameo role on Entourage, Brooke Shields. Sly Stallone is there, Sugar Ray Leonard and Bernard Hopkins. Merchant is now explaining how Steve Forbes got the gig to fight Oscar here tonight. They now move to Manny Steward, who suggests that Forbes at least has a chance though Oscar has set it up to give him all of the advantages. Manny says DLH wants to make a statement tonight.

They throw it up to Michael Buffer who's introducing a mariachi band to play the Mexican national anthem. Big "Cazadores" tequila logo in the middle of the ring and a good sized "Affliction" logo beneath that which no doubt has Dana White at home in Las Vegas gnashing his teeth and spewing "F-bombs". They show some backstage footage of DLH getting his gloves taped looking very calm. OK, the Mexican national anthem is done and we'll get the US anthem performed by Nicole Sherzinger, who's apparently with "The Pussycat Dolls". You think so close to Hollywood they'd be able to get someone a little higher up the celebrity food chain. Nicole is doing the "make it all dramatic" version of the anthem and getting booed, either because the fans are heavily Mexican or because they think she sucks. She's not *that* bad but she should have done a little quicker arrangement. Despite her apparent belief to the contrary, the assembled 27,000 or so isn't in attendance to watch her perform. Dramatic pause of about a minute between the final two lines, along with holding the last "wave" for another minute. At least she's had the courtesy to wear a low cut top which displays her only real "talents". Fans give her a sarcastic pop at the end, and we're back to Lampley who's running over the tale of the tape. Oscar has a 3 inch height advantage, 1 1/2 each reach advantage. Lederman is going over the rules of the California State Athletic Commission--pretty much the same as the unified rules with the exception that you *can* be saved by the bell in the final round.

Steve Forbes comes to the ring first to the curious but somewhat cool choice of "Sweet Dreams are Made of These" by Eurythmics. Forbes is actually a native of Portland, OR and was discovered by the feudin' Mayweather family. He's a huge underdog at +1501, with Oscar a -1700 favorite. Fans give him perfunctory boos, but they don't really have anything against Forbes so it doesn't last long. The story is that Forbes was supposed to be trained by Roger Mayweather until Floyd Jr. put the kibosh on that. He ended up being trained by Jeff Mayweather, the less known and most stable of the clan. Forbes is in the ring now and he looks loose since he clearly has nothing to lose.

Oscar comes to the ring now playing some disco song that I don't know. I was going to say that he's coming to the ring playing "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" but I didn't think you'd believe it. Forbes looks at the crowd wondering where the hell Oscar is. OK, here comes Oscar down the dressing room corridor wearing a blue robe trimmed with orange around the collar and orange gloves. Music changes to some mariachi thing and the crowd is pumped to see the legit legend enter the stadium. Six world titles in six different weight classes doesn't suck. He's also become the undisputed champion of financial success by a boxer, owning a ton of real estate in L.A. in addition to Golden Boy promotions. He's got a nine figure ATM balance which also doesn't suck. Lamps makes a lame reference to the "Summer of Love" in NorCal back during the time when hippies roamed the earth. Buffer starts to give the intro and is now running down the sponsor list. Buffer, always the classy guy, doesn't make the faux pas of wearing a tux outside in the evening and instead opts for a stylish black suit with black tie and white shirt. Ref is Raul Caiz, Jr which gives Buffer an opportunity to trill his "r's" which he does better than any white man on the planet.

Forbes gets intro'd first and hears it from the crowd. He's introduced as hailing from Portland, OR despite the fact that he now lives in Las Vegas. Oscar's intro'd next and gets a nice response. Ref gives the instructions and we're set to go....