INQUIRER Sports

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The Super Puncher who has trained with Oscar De La Hoya and has been calling out Manny Pacquiao just let a stinky little scoop seep out of Big Bear Camp: The Golden Boy may not have trained as hard as has been portrayed.

Edwin Valero, the knockout artist badly needing a big-time bout to cement his status as a rising boxing superstar, surprisingly picked Pacquiao to knock De La Hoya out in their ?Dream Match? Saturday at the MGM Grand?s Garden Arena here.

And his reason is simple.

?Oscar doesn?t like to workout,? the Venezuelan basher revealed through an interpreter Friday after the official weigh-in of the year?s biggest boxing event. Valero said he saw clips of Pacquiao?s training camp and felt that the Filipino ring sensation put in more work for the coming welterweight slugfest.

?Oscar doesn?t like to run,? added the 27-year-old undefeated super featherweight. ?Pacquiao is going to knock Oscar out.?

Valero had a front-row seat to De La Hoya?s training at the Big Bear camp in California. He was signed up to join Team Golden Boy to give the six-division champion a taste of what it feels like to go up against a hard-hitting southpaw.

Pacquiao tipped the scales at a surprising 142 lbs during Friday?s weigh-in, numbers that prodded American trainer Freddie Roach to take a close look at the scales when De La Hoya stepped on it.

De La Hoya came in at 145 lbs.

?I was surprised at my weight,? Pacquiao told journalists Friday night at his suite at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. ?Before I went to the weigh-in, I checked my weight and came at 146 lbs.?

The undefeated Valero, whose 24 victories are all knockouts, including 19 in the first round, also revealed that De la Hoya?s pronouncement that he prepared as hard as he could for his welterweight showdown with Pacquiao is not the only uttered by the Golden Boy.

?I was the one who gave Oscar the black eye,? Valero said. ?Ask him who did it.?

De La Hoya had earlier said in interviews that another sparring mate, Victor Ortiz, had given him the shiner. In fact, during Wednesday?s press conference, De La Hoya even thanked Ortiz for the black eye; saying it jolted him to the realization that he had to put in more work for the fight.

?He?s lying,? Valero said. ?I got kicked out of Big Bear because of that. I only sparred with Oscar for eight rounds because after those eight rounds, Oscar didn?t want to spar with me anymore.?

?I hurt Oscar a lot.?

Valero still hopes he can earn a shot at Pacquiao even at the light welterweight ranks where the Gen. Santos City native vows to end his career.

?I?ve been waiting for years for (a fight with) Pacquiao,? Valero said. ?I?ll fight him at 140 lbs if he wants.?

Pacquiao has said he is eyeing Ricky Hatton as a next possible foe after De La Hoya and that he intends to fight just two more times after Saturday?s ?Dream Match.?