LAS VEGAS — Oscar De La Hoya means business and it showed Wednesday afternoon when the Golden Boy took center stage during a press conference with Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand, site of their scheduled 12-round welterweight clash on Saturday night.

He said he might be the favorite but he is not taking the Filipino lightly and his past regimen attests to that.

"I trained for King Kong," he said.

De La Hoya was tight and appeared as though he got up on the wrong side of the bed in the one-and-half hour affair that the very few times he flashed that mega-watt smile of his was when Hall of Fame trainer Angelo Dundee reminisced and joked about his good old days as a cornerman. Moments later, De La Hoya put on that toothy smile again when he bounced off the podium of the Hollywood Theater inside the sprawling MGM Grand while throwing punches in the air as he was waiting for Pacquiao to come up and have their pictures taken.

As soon as Pacquiao stood just inches away from him, De La Hoya wiped the smile off his face, struck a mean fighting pose and after a few camera clicks, the 35-year-old 1992 Olympic champion turned his back without even shaking the hand of his Filipino adversary, who, for a split-second looked like a special someone had stood him up on a date.

The De La Hoya that faced the media was a far cry from the one who had a ready smile two months ago during their six-city promotional press tour, somebody who even walked side-by-side with Pacquiao and somebody who chatted with his foe with genuine fondness.

Later in a talk with writers, De La Hoya defended his choice of Pacquiao as opponent, telling them that while the 29-year-old Pacquiao is moving up in weight, he remains a dangerous rival who "can handle the weight gain because of his power and speed."

"As long as you train right, as long as you have the right food in your body and as long as you have the right team, you can jump up as many weight classes as you want," De La Hoya, a ten-time world champion in six divisions, said.

"He’s not the slowest fighter out there. He’s probably the fastest fighter out there. A Manny Pacquiao who’s going to jump up 10 pounds, 20 pounds or 30 pounds is still a fast Manny Pacquiao so I think it’s not going to affect him that much the way it affected me because I jumped up six weight classes and by the sixth one, it was tough," explained De La Hoya, widely recognized as the face of boxing.

"His youth kinda balances it out."

But with his vast experience in big-time fights against big guys, De La Hoya is more than optimistic that he will get the job done in devastating fashion as he had sacrificed a lot and endured the pain of being away from his loved ones.

"I would be disappointed if I don’t stop him because this type of fight calls for a knockout," De La Hoya said, who stands to earn at least $15 million, while Pacquiao is assured $11 million in what could easily turn out to be an epic. "My motivation for this fight is Pacquiao’s speed, his power and his relentlessness. That drove me to the gym."

Angelo Dundee, famous for calling the shots in the corners of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, revealed that he had to slow De La Hoya down in training at Big Bear, California.

"I told him to save it for the fight," said the 87-year-old Dundee, who will work alongside chief trainer Ignacio ‘‘Nacho’’ Beristain.

Beristain said everything is all set for a De La Hoya party afterwards.

"De La Hoya has an unbreakable spirit and he is 100 percent ready."

So certain of a happy ending is De La Hoya that he vowed to hang up his gloves for good this Saturday in the event of a Pacquiao victory.

"If I lose, it’s going to be over for me," De La Hoya said, stressing that his free-wheeling days are over. "I used to gamble until 2 a.m. and I was eating in the buffet."

So, would it be a fast and furious De La Hoya showing up on fight night or somebody who can no longer pull the trigger as what Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach many times had bragged?

De La Hoya believes otherwise.

"I trained for King Kong."

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It looks like the odds will be even-steven by the time Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao get it on Saturday night. Latest odds show that De La Hoya is down to a -165 favorite, while Pacquiao is a +135 underdog...Fight merchandise like t-shirts, blouses, caps, posters, souvenir programs and sweatshirts, are some of the most-coveted items selling in the MGM Grand and its chain of hotels along The Strip. For example, a plain shirt printed (black and white) with the likeness of De La Hoya and Pacquiao, sells at $25 each...The boxing beat writers are already in town and more are expected to come. Former LA Times sports editor and columnist Bill Dwyre and staffer Lance Pugmire have arrived as well as George Willis of the NY Post, Norm Frauenheim of the Arizona Republic and Muhammad Ali biographer, Thomas Hauser...One table made up of US mediamen were in stitches after Top Rank big boss Bob Arum mispronounced the name of a former provincial governor from Ilocandia, who occupied a seat on the podium during Wednesday’s press conference.

In fairness to Arum, a Harvard-educated lawyer, he was in charge of introducing key people seated on the Team Pacquiao side of the long table and he was flawless in pronouncing the names of Pacquiao lawyer Franklin "Jeng" Gacal and Cebu promoter Wakee Salud. But when it was time to introduce the man in a bright-orange shirt, Arum, who even leaned over to Pacquiao to get the correct name of the "very famous personage from the Philippines, stumbled as though he had drank one bottle too many. "Governor Takasan!" Arum told the press. Then came another low blow: "Governor Takajingson." Oops, wrong again. Then, to play it safe, Arum said: "(Governor)...whatever." That one brought the house down and the embarrassed governor, who took the place of Manny’s brother Rogelio on the dais, had no choice but to stay put as though nothing had happened. Even the LA Times carried a story about the incident in its forum section.

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