Floyd Mayweather Jr. bashes Oscar De La Hoya

“I feel like Oscar couldn’t beat the king so he wants to see someone else beat the king,” Mayweather Jr. said. “It’s chess. … I can knock them all off the board. I’m amazing like that.

In a discussion with The Times late last month touching on many topics, Mayweather Jr. (44-0) said he wasn’t intimidated by the idea that De La Hoya has huddled to help Alvarez’s fight plan Saturday night at MGM Grand.

Mayweather, amplifying the disdain he has displayed toward the boxer with whom he created the richest pay-per-view bout in the sport's history in 2007, has answered back in a personal way.

Oscar De La Hoya, in keeping with his routine of picking a string of Golden Boy Promotions fighters who’ve taken on Floyd Mayweather Jr., has predicted Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will knock Mayweather out Saturday sometime around the eighth round.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. hits a heavy bag as he works out at the Mayweather Boxing… (Ethan Miller / Getty Images )

“Oscar’s just jealous of me. He don’t have money like me. He’s not flyer than me.

“Oscar ... likes to run around with this Golden Boy image, which we know really is [false]. He’s always been jealous of me. I’m the total package.”

De La Hoya has acknowledged publicly he’s recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.

He told Times columnist Bill Dwyre in a recent interview that he attends recovery meetings six times a week, sometimes twice a day.

"The fight life, that was easy," De La Hoya said in the story. "This is a battle I have every day. There I was, the Golden Boy ... and all the time, I felt like crap. … I'm a nice guy, but I did bad things, made bad decisions. I can't go back."

Mayweather, who doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol, said De La Hoya’s public appearances are “real embarrassing. I wouldn’t even show up to the fights if I were him.

Although De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions has helped Mayweather promote all of his fights since 2007, Mayweather gives credit for that to Golden Boy’s chief executive, Richard Schaefer, and added, “Richard Schaefer’s a good guy, but Oscar’s [not]."

De La Hoya did not immediately respond to messages left for him by The Times on Monday asking him to answer Mayweather’s criticisms.

Schaefer, close friends with both men, said, “I’m playing the Swiss role with this. Things are bad with them, and I hope they don’t boil over at Wednesday’s press conference” in Las Vegas.

Schaefer said the animosity between Mayweather and De La Hoya dating to their heated exchanges before their 2007 fight -- won by Mayweather by split decision -- has intensified as De La Hoya has been so vocal in picking Alvarez to win this Saturday fight.

“I haven’t seen Oscar be this outspoken in picking the Golden Boy fighter as he has for this fight,” Schaefer said. “I think that’s opened up some old wounds on Floyd from 2007. Oscar is even saying he thought he won their fight. So the old fire is back.”