Oscar De La Hoya knows Manny Pacquiao is moving up two weight divisions to fight him but 'The Golden Boy' insists he will not take the Filipino lightly.
Ten-times world champion De La Hoya will face Pacquiao in Las Vegas tomorrow night in what is being billed as a "Dream Match". The American knows that while Pacquiao is the smaller fighter he lacks nothing in punching power.
"If you think that, you tend not to train, you tend to be over-confident," he told reporters this week.
"You think, 'Oh he has no power, oh he has no speed, he's smaller'. Then everything can go wrong for you. I trained for King Kong."
Although tomorrow's contest is not for a recognised world title, it is attracting interest as a clash between the most popular boxer in the world and the man widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter.
De La Hoya, 39-5 (30 KOs), has won world titles from super featherweight to middleweight and has not fought lighter than the welterweight limit of 147 pounds since 1997. In fact he has not weighed less than 150 pounds for a contest since 2001.
In contrast, WBC lightweight champion Pacquiao, 47-3-2 (35 KOs), weighed just 106 pounds - more than forty pounds less than he will weigh tomorrow - when he first entered the ring as a professional in 1995. As recently as 2004, he was still fighting as a featherweight.
Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum dismissed suggestions the size difference would prove too much for the Filipino fighter.
"This flies in the face of the whole history of boxing, where smaller guys have gone up in weight to fight great fighters at higher weights. And very often, they've won," he stated.
"I have a very great sense of responsibility to Manny Pacquiao, who is an icon to an entire nation of 90 million people," Arum continued. "I wouldn't have made the fight if I didn't think he was going to win."
The soft-spoken Pacquiao admitted that he felt tomorrow's contest would be the toughest of all his fights but said taking on bigger men in the ring was like second nature to him.
"Even when I'm fighting at lightweight, I'm sparring with light-middleweights, middleweights. I'm always fighting a big fighter in the gym. That's why I tell myself I can fight at welterweight," he added.
"Physically, I feel the same. My speed is still there. I respect Oscar. He is a good fighter, a great warrior in the ring. But I'm not worried about his power. I have both speed and power. And I believe my speed and power can beat him."