De La Hoya fires back at Mayweather’s claim of racism in boxing

By Boxing News - 01/13/2016 - Comments

delahoya5By Allan Fox: Recently, Floyd Mayweather Jr. commented about his beliefs that there is racism that exists in the sport of boxing. He believes that guys like Gennady Golovkin is being given a free pass by being able to call out smaller fighters than himself without being called on it by the fans and the media.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya responded back to Mayweather, saying there is no racism in boxing. De La Hoya said to ESPN Deportes that fans will either like your style of fighting or they won’t. If you run around the ring, then they won’t like your style of fighting.

“There is no racism in boxing at all. People love you or will not you, period,” De La Hoya said to ESPN Deportes. “Look, if you’re going to run and not give a show to people, you are not going to be wanted, but if you’re going to knock them out and give a show to the people then the people will worship you, of course. Racism has nothing to do with it, “said De La Hoya.

De La Hoya makes a good argument. The fans love fighters if they show heart and are willing to mix it up for three minutes of every round. The fans don’t like it too much if a fighter is unwilling to put their chin on the line to go for a knockout. There are too many fighters in the sport right now that mainly move around in circles trying to avoid getting hit. That’s why when you see a fighter with an exciting style like Gennady Golovkin, the fans quickly show interest in that type of fighter, especially with the way he’s been getting a lot of knockouts in the last seven years of his career.

Mayweather was able to capture huge amounts of fans despite him not having the most entertaining style of fighting. Fans still wanted to see him fight because he was entertaining to watch for the most part. Of course, you can make an argument that the fans liked what they saw from Mayweather more when he elected to punch with his opponents like he did in his fights against Diego Corrales and Miguel Cotto. However, when Mayweather went back to his defensive style of fighting in his second fight against Marcos Maidana and continued to fight that way in his final two bouts against Manny Pacquiao and Andre Berto, he appeared to turn off many fans with that style of fighting.

I don’t believe it was racism that turned the fans off from enjoying Mayweather’s style of fighting in his last three fights of his career. I think it was more of a case of them wanting to see Mayweather mix it up more like he had in his first fight with Maidana and in his above mentioned fights against Corrales and Cotto.

Unfortunately, many casual boxing fans, who might not have seen most of Mayweather’s fights in his career, didn’t realize that his game was mostly focused on being defensive. If they had seen that, they might not have flocked in huge numbers to pay to see his fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2015.

My belief is that Golovkin is so popular now because he’s willing to risk everything to try and please the fans by going for a knockout. It makes him vulnerable, of course, but that’s what the fans want to see. The fans want to see a “drama show” that Golovkin brings to the table. They want to see a fighter playing it safe for 12 rounds by running around the ring, holding each time their opponent gets close to them, and doing little other than posing after throwing single shots.



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