THE SHOWDOWN / BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE RUELAS-DE LA HOYA FIGHT : OSCAR DE LA HOYA : For the First Time, Tapes and a Plan

Oscar De La Hoya had never until now studied tapes of his next foes, never carefully went through days and days of plotting and planning before any of his previous 17 bouts.

“I’ve never been like this,” De La Hoya said. “That’s why I think it’s going to come to my advantage. For once, I’ve studied tapes of my opponent, (and) we’ve sat down after training and talked about our game plan, which we’ve never done before.”

But when he was asked if Ruelas could possibly do anything that would surprise him in the ring, a bit of the De La Hoya bravado resurfaced.

“He’s not tricky at all,” De La Hoya said. “He’s just an ordinary fighter.”