Forbes hopes bout is hit

Former Knott Street boxer will face legend Oscar De La Hoya

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Mar 21, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

TIMOTHY CLARY / GETTY IMAGES

Former Portlander Steve Forbes (right) awaits the most lucrative fight of his career May 3 against Oscar De La Hoya.

HBO spent two days with Steve Forbes this week, getting videotape for a documentary that will debut April 19.

The network was in Portland on Monday, securing footage with the trainers who worked with Forbes during his junior days — Lee Jenkins and Clayton Hires among them — at Knott Street Boxing Club.

These are the kinds of things that happen when a bout with Oscar De La Hoya is on the horizon.

“My life changed from doing ‘The Contender,’ ” says Forbes, the Grant High graduate who will fight De La Hoya in a 150-pound matchup May 3 at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles. “But this is 10 times that.”

Forbes, 31, was runner-up on “The Contender II” in 2006 and is a former International Boxing Federation super featherweight champion. But the exposure he receives — not to mention the purse — for the De La Hoya fight dwarfs anything in his ring career.

“I’ll make more money than I have combined in all my other fights,” says Forbes, who is 33-5 as a pro. “Since I started professional boxing, I’ve always dreamed of fighting in a huge fight. Eleven years later, finally.”

De La Hoya, 35, signed for the fight as a tuneup for a September title rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Forbes sees himself as Rocky, ready to conquer the world.

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