Oscar De La Hoya says not looking past Steve Forbes

By Kieran Mulvaney

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oscar De La Hoya will not underestimate Steve Forbes when he returns to the ring next week for the first time since his defeat by Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The multiple world champion lost his WBC super welterweight title to Mayweather in the highest-grossing contest in boxing last May and is preparing for a rematch in September.

First the 35-year-old faces former IBF super featherweight champion Forbes in Los Angeles on May 3 in his first hometown bout since a split decision loss to Shane Mosley in 2000.

"There's no looking past Steve Forbes," De La Hoya said in a conference call on Wednesday. "I've been training so hard for this, as if it's the most important fight of my life."

De La Hoya said he had overlooked an opponent before, when he fought little-known German middleweight Felix Sturm in June 2004 before a clash with middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

De La Hoya came to the fight out of shape and escaped with a narrow win many observers felt should have gone the other way.

"That's never going to happen again," De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) said. "That's the last thing I want at this stage of my career."

He acknowledged that Forbes "is coming to fight. It's his dream fight. But for him to beat me it's going to take something special because I'm going to put on a spectacular show."