De La Hoya to Fight on after Pacquiao: Could Hatton, Chavez Jr, or Mayweather be next?

By Boxing News - 08/29/2008 - Comments

de-la-hoya5534733.jpgBy Aaron Klein: I don’t begrudge a guy for wanting to make some money, but come on, there’s a point where one can only stomach so much before they lose interest completely in the sport. For me, I think I’ve reach that point with the latest boxing news that Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) has decided on fighting Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs) on December 6th. It’s not as bad as it once was, however, because De La Hoya is now hinting that he’ll continue fighting beyond this fight, presumably against other smaller fighters like Ricky Hatton, a rematch with Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr., or possibly against the inexperienced Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Each fight would most likely generate huge money similar to the payday that De La Hoya will get for his bout with Pacquiao in December.

However, other than a rematch with Mayweather, it hardly seems appealing to see Oscar fight the much smaller Hatton? I doubt that De La Hoya will consider a bout with Chavez Jr. given the difficulties that he’s had recently in dealing with C-class opponents like Matt Vanda and Ray Sanchez, but it’s always a possibility.

The Mexican boxing community would flock to the fight just with the mention of Chavez’s name, knowing that they’d be seeing the legacy of the famous fighter. It wouldn’t be interesting to most other fans, though, because De La Hoya would absolutely destroy the young Chavez Jr. within a few rounds.

It would be one of those fights in which Oscar would have to take it easy on him – in other words, hold him up to keep him in the fight long enough for fans to feel like they didn’t get ripped off. Unfortunately, ripped off is what they’d get, which is why I tend to doubt that De La Hoya will ever decide on fighting the younger Chavez. Then again, I said the same thing when people mentioned him fighting the super featherweight Pacquiao. However, I should have caught on when De La Hoya stopped to fight the former super featherweight Steve Forbes in May. If De La Hoya was willing to fight him, why not Pacquiao?

Ricky Hatton, a light welterweight, was previously on De La Hoya’s radar screen not long ago, but Hatton decided on fighting against International Boxing Federation light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi in November rather than waiting around for a fight with De La Hoya in December. It was a rarity to see De La Hoya turned down for a fight, but then again, Hatton now has a lot of money after his fight with Mayweather and can now afford to turn down fights that he would have literally jumped at in the past.

Hatton probably knew himself that De La Hoya wouldn’t be firm about his threat to retire from boxing in December, and thought it would be better to get in an easy payday against the soft-punching Malignaggi before taking on De La Hoya. As far as size mismatch goes, it’s not quite as bad as De La Hoya facing Pacquiao, but it’s not much of an improvement. Hatton is only 5’7″, an inch taller than Pacquiao and four inches shorter than De La Hoya.

However, the more telling statistics is the reach disparity between them, in which De La Hoya would enjoy an eight inch reach advantage over Hatton. This would mean that Hatton would have to bull rush the taller De La Hoya constantly if he hoped to land any of his own shots, leaving himself vulnerable to getting hit with a left hook from De La Hoya on the way inside. He’d stand little chance of beating De La Hoya, of course, because he’d take way too much punishment while on the outside.

Mayweather will probably be coming back soon, probably when his finances take more of a dip and he needs more money in his piggy bank. Obviously, he’d likely jump at a chance to fight De La Hoya if he can get a good purse split cut.



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