Q 13

PLAYBOY: Is there a place you don't like to get hit?

Oscar De La Hoya: My face. I try to take care of my face as much as possible, especially my nose. You touch my nose and it's all over for you.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: When someone lands a great punch, do you get pissed?

Oscar De La Hoya: Yeah. I start feeling fire all over my body. My eyes get red. I get angry, but you have to control that anger. Because if you're angry in the ring you won't win. As much as I want to be angry because they hit me, you have to keep your calm. You have to be collected, you have to be cool inside the ring. Anger works against you in the ring. You just start whaling away, and you throw your whole game plan away, and that's when it gets dangerous.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: We're told fighters shouldn't have sex before a fight. Do you?

Oscar De La Hoya: I had a girlfriend a long time ago who I had sex with the night before a fight. Must have been my best performance ever--in the ring that is. And to this day my trainer doesn't believe it, my father doesn't believe it. She was there and I couldn't help it. And it was my best performance. I proved a lot of people wrong.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: Should Mike Tyson be allowed to box?

Oscar De La Hoya: That's a toughie. I don't want him coming after me, because he would. Mike Tyson gives boxing a bad name. We all know that, but since we're in the land of opportunity you cannot take away a person's livelihood. But then again, you think of Tyson and you think of biting ears and eating children. So he's in such a tough position because people don't watch him now for his talent in the ring. They watch him because they want to see what crazy thing he'll do with his opponent. It's really sad because we grew up watching Mike Tyson as the destroyer, the champ. Over the years he has changed.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: In the age of AIDS, is the sight of blood cause for concern?

Oscar De La Hoya: It's scary, because you worry about all the diseases out there. We have to get checked all the time--before a fight and after--but it still worries me. You never know what's out there. It also actually helps when you have somebody bleeding. You're so eager to have the fight stopped that it makes you throw more punches, and it makes you more aware. It makes you want to get away from the opponent so you won't get blood on yourself. I've found myself wanting to knock my opponent out very early or using the best defense of my life because I don't want that blood on me.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: Ever had your knees buckle outside the ring?

Oscar De La Hoya: Many times. That one night before my fight, my knees were buckling. Yeah, many times. I can't elaborate on that. I think that's the reason why all trainers say it's bad to have sex before a fight, because your knees buckle. They're right. They do buckle after you do the deed. I've never been in a street fight in my life. I've never had anybody punch me in the chin and my knees buckle or anything like that. Other than that night before the fight, my knees have been all right.

Q 19

PLAYBOY: Place Don King in the pantheon of boxing personalities. Is he a savior of the oppressed or a sewer rat?

Oscar De La Hoya: Don King is a smart man for what he's doing. Every single fight of his, if you notice, is controversial. Yet he gets away with it. People still tune in to his fights. As he says, "only in America." Well, America has given him the opportunity and he's taken advantage of it. If it's in a corrupt way or an honest way, he still takes advantage. I don't praise what he's doing, but he's a smart businessman. That's all he is and that's all it is to him--a business.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: Can you be both a lover and a fighter?

Oscar De La Hoya: I've always been. I've always balanced it out.