INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines—The fight is still two months away, but Oscar De La Hoya is already throwing verbal jabs at the man whose derisive taunt challenged him into fighting again.

And it's not Manny Pacquiao, but Freddie Roach.

Just before hitting the second stop of a fight promotion tour in Chicago, De La Hoya boasted that he has a training headstart of one and half months over Pacquiao, and that he's just 5 lbs away from the 147 lb catch weight.

The 10-time, six-division champ also took a dig at Pacquiao's trusted corner man, saying the two-time Trainer of the Year got it all wrong during his sensational split decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year.

"He (Roach) knows my training regimen, but he doesn't know everything," De La Hoya was quoted by thesweetscience.com.

Roach trained De La Hoya for the Mayweather fight after his long-time trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., begged off in deference to his estranged son.

"I chose Roach to be aggressive," said the Golden Boy. "My thought was to be aggressive with Mayweather. That was a big mistake. The strategy Freddie had was the incorrect one."

De La Hoya has vowed to embrace the style of Ignacio Beristain, the new Hall of Fame trainer of Juan Manuel Marquez who failed to beat Pacquiao in their two previous fights.

In an interview with AOL Sports, Roach said that De La Hoya's size won't matter in the fight as much as Pacquiao's lightning quickness.

"When we get older, our skills diminish, and Oscar's not the same fighter he once was. I'm very confident Manny Pacquiao will knock him out in this fight." Marc Anthony Reyes