In the latest boxing news, it looks as if Oscar De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) is going to be facing undefeated World Boxing Council welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (38-0, 30 KOs) in a rematch on May 3rd of this year, with the location still to be announced. I can’t say that I’m surprised that De La Hoya, 34, has decided on facing Mayweather again so soon, as De La Hoya has few options of winnable fights over top opponents to choose from, and if he were to fight a couple of more times – and likely losing them – De La Hoya would be destroying the possibility of his big money bout with Mayweather.
After all, De La Hoya has lost three out of his last five fights, with one of his wins a gift decision over Felix Sturm in June 2004. De La Hoya, it seems, could ill afford to fight someone else, no matter who, and risk getting pounded and losing. I suppose there’s only so much that the public can take, and if they were to know that De La Hoya was losing pretty much all of his bouts now a days, they would be less in the mood to swallow another $49.95 PPV bout against someone like Mayweather. To be sure, De La Hoya doesn’t stand much of a chance, as usual, of winning his fight against Mayweather, but if both of them are going to be getting between 20-30 million a piece for the fight, what does it matter? It’s money in the bank and winning is the least concerns, it seems.
The fight still hasn’t been officially announced, but negotiations are already underway, according to Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. Expect something to be announced in the near future. Before this, De La Hoya had been kicking around the idea taking on Miguel Cotto, the World Boxing Association welterweight champion, but I never figured De La Hoya was remotely serious about taking on Cotto. The bout would have made De La Hoya, 34, a ton of money, but he would have most definitely have lost the bout and taken a ferocious beating in the process. However, the money wouldn’t have been nearly as good, and depending upon how badly Cotto beat him up, De La Hoya would have had his image tarnished possibly, especially if Cotto would have knocked him out.
After a loss like this, it would have been next to impossible to set up a bout with Mayweather, as their would have likely been huge cries for De La Hoya to retire from boxing by both the public and the boxing writers. It would have been a fatal mistake for De La Hoya to fight Cotto, one that would have been next to impossible for him to recover from. It’s good that De La hoya figured things out on his and realized that he would be potentially flushing away huge money if he’d rushed into a bout with Cotto, or even another opponent.
At this point, aside from a smaller fighter like Ricky Hatton or Manny Pacquiao, I don’t see any other top welterweights or junior welterweights that De La Hoya could handle. They’re just too good, and he’s too old and washed up for him to defeat any of them. I could, however, see De La hoya dipping down and beating a lower top 10 fighter, say, like Zab Judah, but what good what that do? Judah has been beaten by Cotto and Mayweather in the last couple of years, and a victory for De La Hoya would mean next to nothing. However, that’s how bad it is for De La Hoya. He can no longer compete with the top level fighters, and probably hasn’t been able to for the past 3-5 years.
I see Mayweather going easy on De La Hoya, much like last time, hitting him on occasion but letting him have his dignity by not pressing him like he did Hatton. De La Hoya, for his part, will do what he last time, mostly jab and fight robotically, like he has a stick stuck up his back side. He won’t be fluid enough to compete with Mayweather, and will probably stay on the outside, shooting jabs, posing a lot and trying to conserve his precious energy so that he doesn’t run out of gas like he always does. The fight will likely be just as boring to watch as the last one, with little suspense due to Mayweather’s superiority and De La Hoya’s lack of energy.
Comments are closed.