He let his opponent chose the bigger ring so that he could move around more. He let him chose the type of gloves they would use. And he let him chose the location. I'm speaking of course, of Hagler-Leonard in 1987, and middlweight champ Hagler's unwise decision to let American sweetheart Ray Leonard pick and choose his fight-plan preferences, even though he was the challenger.

Hagler lost a controversial decision, and Leonard was hailed as a conquering hero. This time, it's WBC champion Oscar De La Hoya calling the shots, although given De La Hoya immense popularity and talent for generating mammoth-sized pay-per-view numbers single-handedly, the fact that his WBC trinket allows him leverage is a mere formality. However, unlike Hopkins-De La Hoya, where the "Golden Boy" had more in common with Olympic gold-medalist Leonard, while Hopkins subbed for Hagler as the gritty, blue-collar, East-Coast fighter, this time De La Hoya plays the part of Hagler. He's older. He's the bigger puncher. His opponent is younger and moving up in weight to cement a legacy. There are two exceptions, and none of them bode well for De La Hoya. The first is, unlike Leonard at the time, his opponent, Floyd Mayweather, is undefeated. The second is, also unlike Leonard, Mayweather is in his prime. Poor Oscar, he couldn't have picked a worse time to fight the best.

An appearance on the Tonight show with Jay Leno Monday night--routine for De La Hoya before big fights--may reveal the difficulites of focusing on a big fight when you are also an up-and-coming promoter of the sport. When Leno asked De La Hoya if he was nervous, Oscar, whose Golden Boy promotions is handling the fight, replied, "Yeah, we're going up against Spiderman".

There can be no doubt this is a huge event. The cross-country promotional tour De La Hoya and Mayweather took part in after the fight was signed stirred up interest in a country in which boxing is on the endangered species list. And HBO's excellent reality show-like documentary, dubbed "24/7," provided an inside glimpse into the fighters' training camps. But De La Hoya is the last cash cow boxing has, and once he's gone, and with no clear heavyweight champion, the sweet science will continue to suffer.

De La Hoya, 38-4 (30), has been a part-time fighter for the past few years, concentrating on his business commitiments, and this will not serve him well in the ring against Mayweather. Also, Oscar's last fight, a sensational knockout of bully Ricardo Mayorga in 2006, has created the illusory perception that he can perhaps look that dominant against an elite fighter like Floyd. De La Hoya made a wise choice in dropping his trainer--Floyd's father--Floyd Sr. and opting for the excellent Freddie Roach. The psychological implications of Mayweather Sr. training a fighter to knock out his son surely would have worked against De La Hoya. Oscar's bringing in Shane Mosley as a sparring partner was another slick move, as "Sugar" Shane is one of the few fighters who could emulate Mayweather's style and speed. De La Hoya needs to be in absolutely tremendous condition in order to win this fight, and he has faded in big fights against Mosley, Felix Sturm, Hopkins, and Felix Trinidad. De La Hoya's biggest--and only--advantage may be that the fight is taking place at 154 lbs, a weight that he feels comfortable with, and still affords him considerable punching power.

Floyd Mayweather Jr., 37-0 (24), is simply the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He's got the smarts, the hand speed, the footwork, the ring generalship, and the perfect record to prove it. His knockout victories over Diego Corrales and Arturo Gatti were stunning, his brutal dominance of Angel Manfredy and Philip N'dou were sensational. His calculated breakdown of Zab Judah was ingenius. And his virtuoso win over Carlos Baldomir was so emphatic that it caused half the boxing world--led by HBO's Larry Merchant--to question his warrior instincts. If Mayweather truly did hurt is hand and was prevented from going for the KO against Baldomir, that is one thing. But if he didn't bother going for the kill in a fight he admitted was a "cakewalk", then what happens if De La Hoya has Floyd in trouble? True, Mayweather has never been serioulsy hurt in the ring, but he's been rocked by southpaws Demarcus Corley and Judah, and had it in tough in his first fight with Jose Luis Castillo, a fight many thought the Mexican had won.

Mayweather is fighting for the first time at junior middleweight. Has De La Hoya set a trap, or has Mayweather been given the opportunity of a lifetime, giftwrapped and bowtied? One of the x-factors of Saturday night's fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is how well Mayweather will adapt to his new weight. Will it compromise his handspeed and upper body and lateral movement? It almost certainly will diminish his punching power. Will the Reyes gloves hurt his brittle hands? How will he react if De La Hoya tags him on the chin? It certainly would be ironic if Oscar stops Floyd with a bodyshot, since Mayweather accused De La Hoya of faking it in in his knockout loss to Hopkins, in which the "Executioner" stopped De La Hoya with a well-timed liver shot. Or what if Mayweather stops Oscar late? That is not as far-fetched as it seems. If De La Hoya is fading in the later rounds, and Mayweather is landing accuratley with his punches, how will Oscar respond, especially if fighting back means he keeps getting nailed with Floyd's flurries?

The fight is Mayweather's to lose. He has age, speed, skills, and hunger on his side. Oscar has proven before--against Fernando Vargas and Mayorga--that a rich fighter doesn't necessarily mean a complacent, undriven fighter. But against Mayweather, whatever he does may not be enough. De La Hoya will have to fight the fight of his life if he wants to win. Against the best fighter in the world, that still might not be enough. However, that comes with a caveat: if Oscar catches Floyd with a hard left hook, then conventional wisdom is out the window.

Prediction: Mayweather by decision