De La Hoya: “I Was Getting Beat Up In Sparring;” Witter Predicts Kotelnik Knockout over Khan – News

By Sean McDaniel: Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) said that he won’t be making a comeback after retiring yesterday from boxing, saying “I’m 100 percent convinced that I won’t come back.” De La Hoya further went on to mention that he’s made a lot of money in the ring and doesn’t need to make a comeback. De La Hoya went on to point out that he first suspected that he didn’t have what it takes anymore while fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December 2007, a fight in which De La Hoya led in the first six rounds but then faded badly in the last six rounds and ended up losing by a 12-round split decision.

This was further confirmed to De La Hoya when he mentioned having problems in sparring for the Pacquiao fight in which he was getting beaten up in sparring sessions. Indeed, De La Hoya’s right eye was blackened during the sparring for the fight and during the HBO De La Hoya-Pacquiao 24/7 special, Oscar could be seen getting pummeled in a sparring session. Rather than cancel the fight and walk away from a huge payday, De La Hoya went through with the fight and ended up being stopped in the 8th round by Pacquiao.

If De La Hoya does eventually come back in a year or so, he’s going to have to be very selective in whom he fights, because if takes on a younger fighter like Pacquiao then De La Hoya could risk suffering a similar fate as he did last time out. He’s got a big advantage over most boxers in that he’s made a huge amount of money in his career and doesn’t need to fight anymore unless he wants to.

Witter Predicts Knockout Victory for Kotelnik over Khan

Former World Boxing Council (WBC) light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KOs) doesn’t like Amir Khan’s (20-1, 15 KOs) chance against WBA light welterweight champion Andriy Kotelnik (31-2-1, 13 KOs) and is predicting that Khan will be knocked out by Kotelnik by the middle rounds of the fight. Witter, 35, feels that the fight won’t even be close with Kotelnik winning the bout in a “convincing” manner according to Setanta Sports.

Witter perhaps more than anyone, has a good idea of the talent level of Kotelnik as he previously defeated him by a 12-round unanimous decision four years ago. In that fight, Witter built up an early lead with jabs and straight left hands.

However, Kotelnik kept pressuring Witter and in the 2nd half of the fight Kotelnik took over the bout and was punishing Witter at the end of the fight. Witter thinks that Khan would have problems even if he stayed at lightweight where he would eventually run into a big puncher that would take advantage of his weak chin. But, with Khan moving up in weight to the light welterweight division, he’ll be facing even bigger punchers than what he would have faced had he stayed at lightweight.

Witter points out that Kotelnik isn’t a real big puncher, but that he’s precise with his punches and is good at finding the holes in his opponent’s game.

Khan, 22, is coming off a 5th round technical decision victory over Marco Antonio Barrera in March. The fight was stopped due to a bad cut on the forehead of Barrera. At the time of the stoppage, Khan was looking good and well in command of the fight.

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