De La Hoya decides against coming out of retirement

By Boxing News - 06/29/2015 - Comments

delahoya6By Dan Ambrose: After meeting with his family and having a long talk with them about whether or not he should return to the ring after seven years of retirement, “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya has decided not to return to the ring with a comeback. For De La Hoya, this is the second time in the past month that he’s said that he won’t be returning to the ring, so it’s hard to know for sure whether he’ll stick to his guns.

De La Hoya changed his mind recently after posting an Instagram message saying that he’ll never come back. But within days, De La Hoya was back at it talking about a comeback. But perhaps it’s different now that De La Hoya has met with his family about the subject of him coming back.

At 42, De La Hoya’s chances of success with a comeback were essentially nonexistent, not with him only wanting to fight the best like Gennady Golovkin or Floyd Mayweather Jr. De La Hoya’s reluctance to face tune-up opposition would have doomed his comeback to oblivion like other fighters like Ricky Hatton who stubbornly insisted in coming back without tune-up fights.

“I am retired, and after speaking to my family and following a great deal of introspection, I have decided to stay retired,” De La Hoys said in a statement. “As a professional athlete and someone who has spent almost his entire life in boxing, not a day goes by when I don’t think about coming back – and the performances of these Golden Boy fighters has only added to my desire to return to the ring.”

De La Hoya’s decision not to come back means that he won’t get the huge payday that he likely would have received had he fought the likes of Golovkin or Mayweather. De La Hoya would have made a lot of money from one of those fights, even though he would have had little chance to win. The betting for those fights likely would have been more along the lines of which round De La Hoya would get stopped in rather than on who would win. It takes a lot of courage for De La Hoya to stay retired though because he’s walking away from countless millions by choosing not to make a comeback.

It’s unclear what De La Hoya’s personal finances look like right now, but if he needs money, then he’s passing up the perfect opportunity to help pad his bank account. Unless his promotional company can keep their flagship fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez winning for the next 10 to 12 years to turn him into a pay-per-view attraction like Mayweather, De La Hoya won’t get the big money in the future. Golden Boy needs a star in a huge way to create big money fights, and they need someone that will help attract other fighters to sign with their company. Canelo could be that guy if he starts dominating his opposition instead of losing and/or getting controversial wins given to him left and right.

“To the many thousands of fans who over the last couple of weeks encouraged me to come out of retirement and fight again, I thank you,” De La Hoya said. “You can rest assured that I will spend the rest of my days around this wonderful sport, even though those days won’t be spent inside the ropes.”



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