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LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Ten-time world champion Oscar de la Hoya kept his plans for a rematch with pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather jnr on track Saturday with a 12-round unanimous decision over Steve Forbes.
De la Hoya, 35, has said he wants to close out his glittering career in 2008 with two fights - in September against Mayweather and in December, perhaps against Miguel Cotto.
Forbes, a former world champion himself, could have derailed those plans, but De la Hoya gave him little chance, earning the decision by 119-109 according to two judges, while the third saw it 120-108.
Now De La Hoya is expected to face Mayweather on September 20 in rematch of their first bout, which was won by Mayweather.
“The idea is stand up and fight straight up, use the jab and stay on my toes,” said De la Hoya, who did all of those things. “Now I feel sharp. After 12 hard rounds, now I feel sharp after a year-long layoff.”
“It accomplished my goal, and I’m ready to have two exciting fights come September and December.”
De la Hoya, who has won 10 world titles in six weight divisions, improved to 39-5.
Forbes, 31, showed technical prowess, but didn’t have an answer for De la Hoya’s speed and power in the non-title bout fought at 150 pounds.
De la Hoya had vowed he wouldn’t look beyond Forbes, perhaps recalling his 2004 fight against Germany’s Felix Sturm prior to a middleweight clash with Bernard Hopkins.
De la Hoya nearly lost to Sturm, but escaped with a unanimous decision.
Although he was sharp in this one, De la Hoya admitted he was a little disappointed with the outcome.
“I was looking to knock him out, but I couldn’t,” De la Hoya said. “
In his first fight since losing a split decision to Mayweather, De La Hoya took control in the early rounds.

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Easily the busiest boxer on the planet, Oscar De La Hoya is always working on promoting his fights. It’s something other boxers should take note from and learn from as well. Recently De La Hoya took time from his busy schedule to mingle with the readers of the Los Angeles Times. The Times readers were well informed and asked great question to De La Hoya.
One of the questions asked of De La Hoya was if he’d have Floyd Mayweather Sr. in his corner
against Mayweather Jr. this time? De La Hoya plans to fight Mayweather Jr. in a rematch near the end of this year.
De La Hoya told readers of the LA Times: "Absolutely, Mayweather Sr. has that secret potion to dissect the Mayweather style. Mayweather Sr. created that style, he made it, so working with him on the Forbes fight, I already feel confident I’ll beat Mayweather Jr."
De La Hoya was also asked if he wanted a rematch with Trinadad ?
In regards to fighting Trinidad again, De La Hoya told the readers: "If he can come down and meet me at a reasonable weight, I’ll be more than happy to fight him again."
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www.DoghouseBoxing.com. Always updated often through out the day.
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Just because a particular hottie favourite of yours wasn’t at the actual ceremony last night doesn’t mean that they weren’t celebrating at the parties afterwards. Every part of the Oscars itinerary was just flooding with hotties last night whether it was the luncheons, champagne parties or just places where celebrities can go and get free shit.
So we’d like to dedicate our third and final coverage article to the gorgeous babes who decided to glam up and head right for the party right away. Tons of ladies came and out of all of them that you see below, Kate Beckinsale just blew my f#cking mind again. They should have another award at the Oscars that is presented to the hottest after-party attendee cause Kate would take it. Other babes such as Natasha Henstridge, Sofia Vergara (Look at her boobs!) and many more came so it was one hell of a party. In case you’re not aware, music legend Elton John always holds an annual Oscar party which benefits the fight against AIDS in the world so many people always attend his parties.
Well ladies and gents, that brings us to the end of our exclusive coverage of the “80th Annual Academy Awards” and we all hope that you enjoyed every bit of it. I’ve worked my ass off all night so I’m going to get some rest soon. So enjoy the great AFTER-PARTY PHOTOS below and to see our previous posts, head on over to our “Red Carpet Arrivals” or “Ceremony Photos”. A huge round of applause to all those who helped us out along the way!
The hotties photos below are in the following order: Kate Beckinsale, Natasha Henstridge, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Christina Milian, Eva Herzigova, Sharon Stone, Petra Nemcova, Sofia Vergara, Radha Mitchell, Zhang Ziyi and Tia Carrere.

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— "I feel fantastic because I have my mother with me," says Canadian director Josh Raskin standing with his mother Lynne at his side.
Raskin, nominated for an Oscar for his short animated film I Met The Walrus is a guest at the 18th annual Chocolate Fosca party in honour of the Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short Film.
"I have no idea what this has to do with chocolate," he admits. "But, having my friends and family come down to join us, we’ve been running around for a long time losing our minds, it’s easy to forget that you came out of your mom and she’s a lovely lady and it’s been super grounding for all the people I love to come down and hang out without worrying about rushing around and what screening I have to be at."
The 27-year-old filmmaker looks fondly at his mother who has flown in from Toronto to be with her son. "I think the nomination is absolutely fantastic," she says. "It’s a bit surreal. I have to admit I knew he had it in him and now everybody else knows, too."
It’s Academy Awards eve in Los Angeles. Animation teacher Marilyn Zornado and producer Libby Simon have organized tonight’s event, which was created by the now deceased Mike Gribble, co-organizer of Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. At a private residence in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, the party guests, comprised of nominees, colleagues, family and friends, are mingling over cocktails, Yucatan food and luscious desserts.
Despite the fact that there are five films vying for one Oscar, the filmmakers do not seem competitive. They are all congenial with each other and speak about each other’s films with both affection and admiration. Though the big night is less than 24 hours away, the atmosphere is calm, if not a little bit tired due to the manic pre-Oscars schedule which has exhausted some of the nominated guests.
"We feel saturated," says Madame Tutli-Putli filmmaker Maciek Szczerbowski. "We blew our fuses already. It’s back to work. Tutli is over. What began in Cannes is now done. The film really has to live on its own legs, now, without our support."
"Coincidentally, or not, in the parlance of the CIA, ‘we are off the farm.’ " adds his filmmaking partner Chris Lavis. "Believe it or not," he says, "we’ve been taking it easy for the last three days. We’ve decided to relax with our girlfriends, do all the things in LA that we like to do and to get our heads out of the fishbowl and actually get some sleep."
Grace Szczerbowski is sitting close to her son and beaming. "I’m very proud of my son’s nomination," she says, "I’m very emotional for sure. He’s done a good job and he’s already won the nomination so that is really what counts for me."
Canadian Marcy Page, producer of Madame Tutli-Putli, is enjoying the evening’s festivities and the camaraderie, which exists between all the nominees. "We’re at the Chocolate Fosca party," she says, "and it’s always the highlight of the tour of bonding with the other filmmakers. It’s great in our category that we are all together."
She, too, admits to being a little worn down. "I could use 24 hours to sleep."
Half way through the relaxed evening, a small ceremony is held in the residence’s living room where the Oscar nominated filmmakers are given Chocolate Foscas, named for and modelled after the character "Fosca" in animator Marv Newland’s animated film Anijam.
Upon accepting his Fosca, Szczerbowski talks earnestly about the importance of the National Film Board. "The health of that organization is more important than our little film or our ridiculous futures," he says.
Once the ceremony is over, the animation teams sign and draw on a banner that party guest Spike Decker (of Spike & Mike), takes to various film festivals and events to honour his former partner Mike Gribble. This is the third banner since Gribble’s death in 1994. The banners are hung in Decker’s La Jolla office.
Filmmaker Paul Demeyer and his wife Renate Kempowski own the house where the party is taking place. "It’s great because it’s nice to see the people who are nominated in the animated short film category," says Demeyer. "They are such a different crowd than what we know as the Hollywood crowd in that they are more like artists, normal artists, not that ego stuff that Hollywood tends to bring with it."
The intimate evening winds down early in order to give the nominees a chance to get a good night’s sleep before the Academy Awards ceremony. Most of the nominees will be catching a flight out of Los Angeles immediately on Monday. Raskin, however, says he might remain in Los Angeles for a few extra days, "I need to fall asleep and recover for a week," he says. "This is a very nice place to do it."
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It may rain on the Oscars. Which, all things considered, is pretty good bad news.
The 80th Annual Academy Awards are Sunday. The show will go on, showers or no—just as it was to go on, stars or no.
With the writers' strike ended last week, the blackest of clouds over the ceremony was lifted. Nominee attendance should be strong; the red carpet should be crowded; and, as planned, the presenter lineup will be A-plus-list—Miley Cyrus debates aside.
Here's a look at the night to come:
Showtime, ABC says, is 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. Although, really, that's when the Oscars' official red-carpet coverage, with Regis Philbin, Samantha Harris and Shaun Robinson, starts. Look for the actual Oscars—awards, host Jon Stewart and all—at 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET.
E! and TV Guide Channel present their arrival shows starting at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET.
According to BookMaker.com, and most pundits, anything less than a big, Best Picture-winning night for No Country for Old Men will be an upset.
Other favorites of the online gaming site: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) for Best Actor, Julie Christie (Away From Her) for Best Actress, and Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) for Best Supporting Actor.
Double-nominee Cate Blanchett is expected to lose Best Actress, where she's up for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and win Best Supporting Actress, where she's up for I'm Not There, although the buzz, and the BookMaker.com odds, say Gone Baby Gone's Amy Ryan will make it close (and maybe just steal the category).
When selecting your office-pool picks, listen to eBay at your own risk. The online auctioneer says last year its buyers snapped up merchandise at a rate that correlated with wins in two of three top Oscar categories—i.e., among nominated directors, Martin Scorsese stuff sold the best. If you follow eBay's thinking this year, you'll wade in with Juno for Best Picture (a longish-shot), No Country's Joel and Ethan Coen for Best Director (a safe pick, to say the least), and Sweeney Todd's Johnny Depp for Best Actor (good luck with that).
If there is to be an upset in the Best Actor race, by the way, conventional wisdom says it'll be George Clooney for Michael Clayton.
Miley Cyrus' scheduled Oscar ceremony appearance has been hotly debated in the blogosphere, but after 27 Dresses' Katherine Heigl, no presenter has starred in a bigger hit movie this year than Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert.
Less hotly debated presenters include the likes of George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks and Nicole Kidman.
Cyrus, by the way, will be near-impossible to miss on Sunday. She's also a guest on Barbara Walters' annual Oscar night special, airing on ABC before the show (or, after it, on the West Coast).
Harrison Ford, Ellen Page and Ugly Betty's Vanessa Williams are Walters' other interview subjects. Of the bunch, only Juno's Page is an Oscar nominee.
Certainly, you'll pay attention to the commercials…won't you? Oscar advertisers spent, on average, a record $1.8 million per 30-second spot.
According to the National Weather Service, there's a 70 percent chance of rain in Los Angeles on Sunday. But not to worry, the red carpet's got it covered, literally.
With the strike over, the post-Oscar parties will go on—just not all of them. Vanity Fair, among others, canceled its traditional bash. But, per E! Online senior editor Marc Malkin, the invites are out to a new soiree being thrown by Madonna, Demi Moore and music mogul Guy Oseary. Prince, a past Oscar winner himself, is also in hosting mode, per the columnist, as is Elton John, he of the annual Oscar night AIDS benefit.
According to Nielsen Media Research, if you plan to watch the show, statistically speaking, you are probably a college-educated woman, at least 35, who lives in New England, the Mid-Atlantic or the Pacific. Old southern men, however, are still invited to tune in.
If you saw only one Oscar movie, the box-office totals suggest it was probably Juno. Not only is the comedy the only Best Picture nominee to top $100 million, it's the only nominated film in the Best Actress category to take in even $20 million. (Through Wednesday, the movie had grossed $125.8 million, per Box Office Mojo.)
In general, Nielsen found, Academy Award viewers "tend to be health conscious consumers of wine, nuts, pretzels, yogurt, liquor, health bars, trail mix, coffee, pudding and popcorn," and, may we add, plucky optimists who actually believe liquor, pudding and popcorn make for part of a well-balanced diet.
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Actress Marion Cotillard strolls through the lobby of the Smith Rafael Film Center on Jan. 29 before a showing of her film "La Vie En Rose." She is up for an Oscar.
Picking Oscar winners is as hard as betting on who’ll win the Super Bowl. Maybe harder. At least with the Super Bowl you can get points.
“It’s as hard as trying to decide between Hillary and Obama,” says Zoe Elton, director of programming for the California Film Institute, the people behind the Mill Valley Film Festival and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center.
“The hardest are the acting awards,” she says. “There are always these incredible actors who pull rabbit-out-of-the-hat performances. How can you possibly choose?”
Because I’m pretty sure that no one sees more films than Zoe does, or is more astute on the subject, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather put on the spot to do just that.
So, one recent morning, she and I chatted about who we predict will prevail in the six major categories - best picture, best actress, best actor, best supporting actress, best supporting actor and best director - when the 80th Academy Awards airs Sunday night on ABC, beginning at 5 p.m.
Many of us will be watching in our living rooms with our friends and families. For the 14th year, film buffs who prefer a grander experience will also come together at the Rafael Film Center for Oscar Night America, a benefit for the California
Film Institute’s education program for school kids.
Zoe and I agreed that because of the film institute, Marin is the place to be for people who love movies. Over the past year, we’ve seen and heard a number of actors and directors and technical people who are now up for awards, and how many suburban counties in the country can say that?
“Between what we do at the festival and what we show at the Rafael, it’s a pretty rich palette,” Zoe says.
For example, Todd Haynes, who directed the Golden Globe winner “I’m Not There,” inspired by the many faces of Bob Dylan, was here in October for the film festival, speaking insightfully about Cate Blanchett’s phenomenal impression of Dylan in his early electric period.
Blanchett is up for best supporting actress, as is Amy Ryan, who was also in Marin for the festival, accompanied by Ben Affleck, for a screening of “Gone Baby Gone,” which Affleck directed.
It was nice having Amy and Ben here, but, for Zoe, it came down to Blanchett or Tilda Swinton for her role as a killer corporate lawyer in “Michael Clayton.”
“I was gobstrucked by Cate Blanchett in ‘I’m Not There,’” Zoe said. “But then Tilda Swinton has that indelible last scene in ‘Michael Clayton.’ I’m getting chills just thinking about that. Those few moments for me were one of the most transcendent moments for an actress on film that I’ve ever seen.”
When all was said and done, Zoe went with Swinton while I cast my vote for Blanchett, not because I think she’s the best, but because I think she’ll win.
The French star Marion Cotillard, a best actress nominee, was at the Rafael Film Center a few weeks ago for a reprise screening of the Edith Piaf biopic “La Vie en Rose.”
And Laura Linney, also up for best actress, was here on opening night of the film festival for a screening of “The Savages.”
A double nominee, Blanchett is also in the running for best actress for “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.” But neither Zoe nor I think that movie is strong enough for her to win this time.
“I think she’ll have other chances,” Zoe predicted.
We toyed with selecting the darling Ellen Page, the newcomer getting all the buzz for “Juno.” And, any other year, sentimental favorite Julie Christie would get my vote.
At the end of the day, though, we agreed that Cotillard will take the best actress Oscar back to France with her. We may have been swayed by her lovely presence here, and by the fact that she has family in San Rafael, but, that being said, she really deserves to win.
“Atonement” director Joe Wright was in Marin recently with James McAvoy, who co-stars with Keira Knightley in movie adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel, a best picture nominee that had a preview screening at the Rafael.
Again, I don’t think it’s because Wright charmed us with his hip Britishness, but we picked “Atonement” to grab best picture honors.
For some reason, Wright didn’t get a nomination for best director. Without him in the mix, Zoe’s going with Joel and Ethan Coen for “No Country for Old Men,” a movie I’ve been hesitant to see because of all the violence. But she convinced me to put that aside, and I plan to see it before the awards show.
“The great thing with that film, although there’s violence, I really trust the people whose hands I’m in,” she told me. “Cormack McCarthy (author of the novel it’s based on) and the Coen brothers is a marriage made in heaven. There is violence, but what’s driving it is a fascinating journey.”
That may be, but I’m picking Julian Schnabel for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” a longshot that is also nominated for best cinematography.
Zoe likes Javier Bardem to limp away with the Oscar for best supporting actor for “No Country for Old Men,” but I’m rooting for Hal Holbrook for “Into the Wild,” which was also previewed at the Rafael, followed by a Q&A with director Sean Penn and star Emile Hirsch. This may be Holbrook’s last nomination, and I can’t picture the Academy not giving the award to him.
And, finally, let’s look inside the envelope for the hard-to-choose best actor. Zoe thinks Daniel Day-Lewis will get it for “There Will be Blood,” and so do I, although I disliked that movie immensely while admiring his performance in it.
Whoever wins Academy Awards on Sunday night, the movie-going public was the real winner this Oscar season.
“Across the board, there were some powerful films,” Zoe said. “I want everyone to win.”
OSCAR GALAS IN MARIN
AT THE SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER
What: “And the winner is É the California Film Institute’s Oscar Night America,” the only official Bay Area Academy Awards event sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Proceeds benefit California Film Institute Outreach
Who: The emcee is Marin comic/actor Geoff Bolt
Where: Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael
Details: Evening includes a silent auction, a raffle and the “Predict the Winners” contest. Dinner and wine bar are available in the adjacent cafe.
Tickets: Bronze patron tickets $100 for general seating, $150 for reserved seating for groups of 10 or more (with print and on-screen acknowledgement)
3:30 p.m. - Sneak preview of selected Oscar-nominated shorts
4 p.m. - Gala starts with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres plus live telecast of the red-carpet arrivals in Los Angeles
5 p.m. - Live telecast of 80th annual Oscars, with Geoff Bolt providing laughs during commercial breaks
AT THE LARK THEATER
What: Fourth annual Academy Awards at the Lark, with proceeds benefitting the Lark Theater, a nonprofit film center
Who: The emcee is Chad Carvey
Where: Lark Theater, 549 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur
Details: Evening includes gifts for most glamorous guests, most creative outfits and winning nominee ballot; Silent auction for special framed movie posters and more; food donated by Larkspur restaurants and caterers and wines from Peter Paul & Grove Street Winery
Tickets: $55; $75 for reserved seats; seating is limited
Information: 924-5111 or e-mail info@larktheater.net
4:30 p.m. - Gala starts with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres plus live telecast of the red-carpet arrivals in Los Angeles
5 p.m. - Live telecast of 80th annual Oscars
Paul Liberatore can be reached at liberatore@marinij.com.

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