De La Hoya, Mayweather agree to bout

Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. reached an agreement Monday to square off in May in a blockbuster fight that will earn De La Hoya in excess of $25 million and Mayweather between $10 and $12 million.

The two finalists to play host to the fight, which will be held May 5, are Staples Center and Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Hotel, according to Richard Schaefer, chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions, De La Hoya’s company. Another source close to the negotiations confirmed that Staples Center is a serious player in the site fight, although the Las Vegas company clearly has the resources to win a bidding war.

“This is the kind of fight Mayweather wanted,” Schaefer said. “The best pound-for-pound fighter, Mayweather, will be fighting the best pay-per-view fighter, De La Hoya.”

The stipulated weight for the match will be 154 pounds.

De La Hoya, who has won titles in six weight divisions, is coming off a dominating performance last May, a sixth-round TKO victory over Ricardo Mayorga to take the 154-pound World Boxing Council title.

Mayweather, who has won championships in four weight categories, is also coming off one of his most one-sided fights, having won every round on two of the three judges’ scorecards in earning the WBC 147-pound title 10 days ago from Carlos Baldomir.

“Oscar recognizes that Floyd Mayweather is no Ricardo Mayorga,” Schaefer said, “and Floyd recognizes that Oscar is no Carlos Baldomir.”

A source close to Las Vegas oddsmakers predicted the early line will favor Mayweather at 2-1.

An intriguing sidelight to the match is the fact that Floyd Mayweather Sr., the fighter’s father, is De La Hoya’s trainer. Although the two Mayweathers have had a very public, very ugly feud for years, Floyd Sr. had said he refused to train anyone to knock his son out. He subsequently announced he had changed his mind.

Mayweather, 29, was supposed to be the fighter with the wide-open future, while De La Hoya, 33, had talked in recent months about a farewell fight. Now those roles are reversed. De La Hoya says he plans on fighting for a few more years; Mayweather, sobbing at his news conference following the Baldomir fight, announced that his next match would be his last.

Mayweather had been demanding a purse equal to that of De La Hoya. But De La Hoya, citing his far greater drawing power -- he had 925,000 pay-per-view buys for the Mayorga fight, Mayweather 325,000 for Baldomir -- offered something closer to the final numbers and gave Mayweather a Monday deadline to respond.

Mayweather, who once labeled an HBO offer of approximately $12 million “slave wages,” decided that amount wasn’t so distasteful after all when De La Hoya put it in front of him.

steve.springer@latimes.com