BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) – With their fight more than two months away, Oscar De La Hoya and Ricardo Mayorga are tuning up with some verbal sparring.

The 33-year-old De La Hoya has said he hopes to close out his career with the May 6 bout against Mayorga, and a grand finale against either Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Felix Trinidad in September.

Mayorga, a wild-swinging WBC champion from Managua, Nicaragua, talked a great game on Tuesday, saying that he intends to spoil De La Hoya’s plans.

“This clown sitting here to my right has disrespected me,” the animated Mayorga said at a news conference. “He keeps saying that he’s going to be fighting in September or October, like he’s fighting a nobody in May.

“I’m the champion. You’ve got to recognize that. My strongest hand is my right hand. You see his eye? I’m going to detach his retina,” Mayorga said through a translator.

De La Hoya sat staring coldly at Mayorga.

At one point, after Mayorga said he was going to bust up De La Hoya’s face, the two traded shoves before others quickly stepped in to separate them.

When De La Hoya’s time at the podium came, he spoke in a measured tone.

“This will be,” he said and then took a long pause, “the fight of my life. I’ve never had any anger toward anybody, or disrespect, except for one man out there who got knocked out,” De La Hoya said, ostensibly alluding to Fernando Vargas. “This guy here, May 6, believe me, he will get knocked out.

Mayorga will put his super welterweight title on the line in the bout at the MGM Grand.

The fight will be De La Hoya’s first since he was stopped by Bernard Hopkins.

in the ninth round on Sept. 18, 2004.

A six-time champion, De La Hoya has a 37-4 record, with 29 knockouts. His other defeats were a pair of decisions to Shane Mosley, and another by decision to Trinidad.

Mayorga (27-5-1, 22 knockouts) has had some impressive fights, including beating Vernon Forrest twice in 2003. But he has lost two of his last four bouts, decisioned by Cory Spinks in 2003 and stopped by Trinidad in 2004.

AP-ES-02-28-06 1858EST