Oscar De La Hoya delivered a chilling message to Sugar Shane Mosley ahead of their September 13th rematch when he stopped Mexican Yory Boy Campas in seven rounds to retain his WBC/WBA light-middleweight titles at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas early this morning.
De La Hoya, who goes by the name 'The Golden Boy' following his gold medal victory at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, was quickly into his stride with his jab, as Campas walked forward and De La Hoya picked him off at ease.
He caught the judges' eye with eye-popping combinations, especially in the fifth round when he rocked the head of Campas on a few occasions.
De La Hoya had been out of the ring for seven months since beating Fernando Vargas to unify the light-middleweight division with an 11th-round stoppage, but showed no signs of ring rust and was always in control.
Campas was deducted a point in the fifth for constantly losing his gum-shield due to the velocity of De La Hoya's punches.
It was Campas' corner who finally called a halt to the fight midway through the seventh.
After the fight De La Hoya rated his performance as seven out of 10 as he could not throw his left hand very much due to hurting it early in the fight.
Now De La Hoya, cheered on by his fans throughout the fight, will look to avenge one of his two professional defeats against Mosley, who outboxed De La Hoya in June 2000.
On the same bill, Mexican Erik Morales waved goodbye to the featherweight division and a possible rubber match with fellow Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera when he strolled to a fifth round stoppage of American Fernando "Bobby Boy" Velardez.
The match had a special feel for Morales, who avenged the controversial defeat that his younger brother Diego sustained at the hands of Velardez.
Morales looked strong during the fight despite having to weigh-in twice to make the limit in the second defence of his second reign as WBC champion.
'El Terrible', as Morales is known, had Velardez on the floor for the first time right at the end of the first round when he connected with a straight left sending Velardez down near the ropes, but he got up and looked OK.
Morales kept control of the fight throughout and had Velardez down for the second time in round four following a excellent combination. The end looked near when Velardez went down for the second time in the fourth, this time as Morales landed a right hand straight through Bobby Boy's guard.
The end came after 62 seconds of the fifth, when the referee waved the fight off without a count when Velardez went down following a left to the body.
After the fight, Morales said: "This was definitely my last fight at 126 pounds, but I'm not afraid of Barrera and if he wants it I will fight him at a catch-weight but definitely not at 126."
If the third fight with Barrera does not come off, Morales will look at a possible match against Jesus Chavez, before targeting the highly-rated Brazilian Acelino Freitas, or even jumping to lightweight to tackle Floyd Mayweather.