Oscar, Mayweather ready

Below is an invaluable insight into how each fighter is preparing for what is surely going to be the highest grossing non heavyweight title fight in history.

For the May 5 fight Oscar De La Hoya is adhering to a strict, complex-carbohydrate diet that gives him optimal, day-long energy. Administered by his conditioning guru Rob Garcia, who also serves as camp chef, De La Hoya ingests a combination of protein, organic and high grain carbohydrates, and a variety of vegetables and fruits to round out daily meals. He will alternate his daily proteins, selecting from his favorites: lamb, chicken and fish. He loves sea bass.

Adding to the meal is organic brown rice, vegetables or another favorite spinach salad. For fluids, it's juices, pineapple or grapefruit, and sometimes a glass of rice milk.

"After the Mayorga fight, I stayed on the healthy plan of life and it made a big difference in keeping my weight down and staying in shape," said De La Hoya. "I feel the difference while training when I am sticking to the plan and giving myself the fuel I need to recover from the daily grind of training camp. I can't say I don't miss my wife's cooking, as she makes great Puerto Rican food, but it's a sacrifice worth making to get what I need to win the fight."

"Oscar has responded really well to the meal plan," said Garcia. "He comes down the hill to the condo and eats his meals with us. The energy the diet is giving him makes him extremely explosive when he's training at full speed. It's great to see him in such fantastic shape and don't look for him to be tired on May 5th. He'll be ready to fight in to the later rounds if he doesn't stop him early."

For Floyd Mayweather, there is no room for the word "diet" or "strict" in his training schedule. "I eat what I want and I always have energy," said Mayweather. "I have a cook who knows what I like to eat and she varies the menu based on what I tell her to make after I come home from the gym."

Mayweather stays healthy with a balanced three meals-a-day schedule. Among his favorites are turkey bacon, chicken, potatoes and a variety of vegetables. Although it's good to have a cook, Mayweather also admits he doesn't shy away from his favorite "bad" foods either which include: Popeye's Chicken, pizza and his favorite vice–good ole fashion candy.

"I can go to camp and I'm still gonna drink soda, I'm still gonna eat cookies, I'm still gonna eat pizza and I eat lots of candy, licorice, lots of licorice. There ain't nothing about me fake. I'm still gonna train hard. This ain't Rocky; this is real life."

Fighters have different takes on watching tapes. De La Hoya, lead trainer Freddie Roach, conditioning coach Rob Garcia and camp coordinator/brother Joel De La Hoya Jr. pow-wow together and watch and study Mayweather tapes with a fine tooth comb, going over a collection of his fights that show his ring performances.

"It gives me a chance to analyze his ring habits and set my plan accordingly," said De La Hoya. "I can see what he does in the ring and identify the flaws in his execution. Mayweather makes mistakes and we are coming up with the perfect plan to expose these errors on May 5."

"Mayweather has tremendous skill but there are things he does in the ring that Oscar can take advantage of," said Roach. "The more you watch him the more you see when and where you can take advantage of his weaknesses."

"Tapes, what tapes? I don't watch tapes–never have and never will. I let my trainers do that and they can let me know if they see something I can use to my advantage. But what good is watching tapes anyway? Once we're in the ring, no amount of tape is going to show you how to beat me," said Mayweather.

The monotony of training camp can drive anyone a little crazy. All work. No play. Day-to-day routine. Wake-up, run. Run, eat. Eat, rest. Rest, gym. And on and on and on. What do camps do to break-up the routine and the downtime between sessions? Take a look inside each camp.

"We watch a lot of tapes, movies and videos," said Rob Garcia. "Oscar might drive or ride his bike over to the condo to just relax or watch the tapes. He brings his son Gabriel with him from time to time just to get out and relax."

"We also have a gentlemen's game of ping pong that started with the first day of camp. Freddy likes the hand-eye coordination of the game so it's fun and helpful at the same time. We don't really keep score but Oscar's appears to be leading in games won."

The days of going out for the young Mayweather are over. "I don't do anything now except train, go home and play with my kids. I have a Segway in my house and we ride through the house on it all the time. Sometimes my crew will come over to watch movies or play cards." Favorite house game–Spades.

Both De La Hoya and Mayweather took part in the mandatory WBC 30-day safety weight check-in from their respective training camps. Jose Penagaricano, the President of the Puerto Rico Boxing Commission, oversaw De La Hoya's weight as the fighter recorded 164.5 pounds. Mayweather's weight, eye-witnessed by Dr. Robert Voy, was 152 pounds. Fighters had to weigh within 10% of the the 154-pound weight limit.

De La Hoya vs. Mayweather "The World Awaits" is for the WBC super welterweight championship, Saturday, May 5 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, the fight will be broadcast live on HBO Pay-Per-View at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT and will be available to more than 61 million pay-per-view homes and in 176 countries around the world.