Oscar's strange training techniques
De la Hoya Training Camp
Written By Zeferino Jackson
www.blacksportsonline.com
First and foremost I would like to thank all of the lectors for the emails. I have spent the last six weeks in Puerto Rico where I had time to visit the Oscar de la Hoya training camp, speak to the natives, and just get a general feeling of the intensity leading up to this fight. I will be visiting Floyd Mayweather Jr’s training camp in Las Vegas within the next two weeks and the readers of this website will be treated to an inside look at the training camp of the pound for pound boy wonder. De La Hoya vs Trinidad All Over Again
As every boxing fan knows by now, on May 5, 2007 the biggest hyped fight in history will take place. The hype for this fight is so excessive that there is no way the actual fight will meet up to the expectations. This fight is similar to the last greatly hyped match up that turned out to be a dud, Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya versus Felix “Tito” Trinidad, back in 1999. That fight was hyped as the fight of the millennium and didn’t even turn out to be fight of the year. The potential for a great fight was there as we expected one of two scenarios. One, the powerful yet vulnerable Trinidad would just overpower the less powerful Golden Boy or the Golden Boy would use his boxing skills to decision Trinidad or somehow surprise and hurt him. What we got was a close fight with toss up rounds in the first four rounds, Oscar de la Hoya outboxing Trinidad from rounds five through eight and then Oscar De La Hoya literally running away from Trinidad from rounds nine through twelve. Trinidad did not seem at his best either but did seem to be trying to make a fight happen while De La Hoya seemed to be doing the opposite. A draw, as Harold Lederman had it, would have been the fairest decision. Like the De La Hoya-Trinidad fight, for the Mayweather vs De La Hoya fight, it is expected that the fight will end in one of two scenarios, a De La Hoya knockout or Mayweather taking a boring decision. I think this fight does not live up to the hype and that Mayweather wins a lackluster match that will do little for the fistic credibility of either fighter. After all, if Mayweather wins, what does it prove? Oscar de la Hoya was not that great to begin with. Yes, I know, Oscar fought everybody, but whom did Oscar beat? If Oscar De La Hoya wins, well Mayweather was the smaller guy anyway and maybe Mayweather wasn’t that great anyway because Oscar usually can’t convincingly beat anyone young and undefeated.
Oscar De La Hoya In Puerto Rico
During my stay in Puerto Rico, I was able to visit Oscar de la Hoya’s training camp located in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. At this time I would like to thank the Hernandez family for offering me their home and for their hospitality.
Oscar de la Hoya trains at the Wilfredo Benitez Gym located in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. It’s a fairly modern installation with basic boxing and fitness equipment. Once I arrived to the gym, I showed my credentials to a guy named Jose and was then introduced to Oscar de la Hoya and Freddie Roach. In this manner, I was able to tag along for the next 8 days and witness some of the most intense yet innovative boxing training methods. I began to understand that Oscar might have a smoking gun in the seemingly quiet and shy Freddie Roach.
Intense Training Regimen Unlike Most
I followed De La Hoya and Roach for three days and it went generally like this:
5:00 am – Oscar drinks a liter of water and runs 5 miles every morning. Freddie Roach does not allow De La Hoya to stop running even to urinate the water he has consumed earlier. According to Freddie Roach, this helps for endurance. On days when the tropical heat of Puerto Rico has been unbearable, De La Hoya has been known to strip down, doing his morning run clad only in a Mets baseball cap, Speedo underwear and Nike running shoes without socks. The scene is unreal as hordes of Puerto Rican females wait on different corners of Oscar’s route just to catch a glimpse of him even at five in the morning.
7:00 to 8:30 am - Calisthetics (push ups, sit ups, etc.) Chases chickens for a half hour.
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9:00 am - Breakfast (egg whites, oatmeal, and mango.)
10:00am to 2:00pm- Rest
3:00 to 4:00 pm - Family time with wife Millie Corretjer. According to one of Oscar’s entourage, Oscar enjoys non-ejaculatory sex with wife (rejuvenates the spirit). Freddie Roach does not discourage sexual contact during training as long as the fighter does not climax or reach orgasm. Roach declined to comment on exactly what Oscar does from 3:00pm to 4:00pm but he did share this: “Let’s just say, when a fighter is pent up from having sex with no release, this increases his aggression and ferocity in the ring. This is why Manny is champ right now and this is why Floyd Mayweather’s getting knocked out on Cinco de Mayo..” He was referring to his other charge, Manny Pacquiao, a ferocious fighter from the Phillipines and current lightweight champ.
6:00-8:00 pm - Boxing. Oscar works the pads with Freddie Roach and also engages in intense sparring sessions with local Puerto Rican talent including the world strawweight champion, Ivan “Iron Boy” Calderon.
8:00-9:00 pm – Freddie Roach performs the full nude body greasedown massage technique on Oscar de la Hoya while fight strategy is discussed. The full nude body greasedown is a well documented boxing training tool used mostly before the 1970’s by fighters like Joe Louis and Willie Pep. It has been hailed by fighters like Demarcus Corley, Lennox Lewis, and Archie Moore. It is making resurgence among today’s trainers and currently trainer Joe Goossen is considered the most adept at it. In my opinion, Freddie Roach is the least adept as his Parkinson’s affected hands don’t seem to allow him to perform the gentlest massage. For those not familiar with the deeper fundamentals of boxing training, the full nude body greasedown consists of the trainer rubbing a combination of oil, vinegar, and sometimes salt over the completely nude body of a boxer. This seems to increase concentration and cause a bond between the fighter and the trainer.
9:00-10:00 pm – Freddie Roach has Oscar de la Hoya and the sparring partners go for a swim in a special thermal pool designed to relax the muscles and allow them to recuperate faster from the day’s training. Only fighters and trainers are allowed in the pool and no clothing or any type of swimwear is allowed while swimming. Freddie Roach supervises the swimming and I am informed that he also serves as a lifeguard during this. The environment is completely professional and not paramount to “skinny dipping” as some in Floyd Mayweather’s camp have alluded to.
After the swim, Oscar goes to bed and the cycle continues the next day. Oscar appears to be in tremendous shape and appears to be already on weight for the fight with over a month to go. Oscar looked better than I have ever seen him during sparring and is training diligently to pull off the upset.
