LAS VEGAS --- A crowd estimated at 7,000 jammed the MGM Grand Garden Friday afternoon – and that was just for the weigh-in. Of course, had the metal detectors which will be used to screen Saturday night’s patrons been operative, the weigh-in attendance might have been closer to 2,000.

Oscar De La Hoya scaled in at the divisional limit of 154 pounds, while challenger Floyd Mayweather weighed 150.
Mayweather is obviously designed for speed in this matchup, but his weight was easily a career high, topping by three pounds the 147 Pretty Boy weighed for Sharmba Mitchell in their 2005 Portland fight.

“I feel very comfortable, as always,” said De La Hoya, who could well outweigh Mayweather by a dozen pounds or more by the time they get into the ring.

Kenny Bayless, who counted De La Hoya out after Bernard Hopkins put him down with a body shot in their 2004 fight, will be the referee for ‘The World Awaits,’ while should it go to a decision, the ringside judges will be Nevada veterans Jerry Roth and Chuck Giampa, along with New Jersey’s Tom Kaczmarek.

Although Mayweather appeared to have the larger posse, De La Hoya’s weigh-in entourage included Felix Trinidad, who in 1999 became the first man ever to defeat the Golden Boy, along with Hall of Famer Roberto Duran.
Trinidad offered encouragement, Duran advice.

“Oscar, you are so intelligent, you have a lot of experience and you are bigger than him,” Tito told him. “You can beat him!”

Duran was more blunt and to the point: “Throw a right hand over and a left hook to the liver. That should be all.”

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