By Chris Thomas: According to the latest rumor mill, Oscar De La Hoya is considering fighting former junior welterweight Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs) for his May 3rd tune-up bout. Nothing has been nailed down at this time, but the 30 year-old Forbe’s name has rose to the head of the list for potential opponents. At 5’7,” Forbes would be at a considerable disadvantage against the taller 5’11” De La Hoya, who could stand back and pound away at him all fight long without even getting a scratch. Though it’s quite normal for fighters to fight less than impressive fighters in their tune-up bouts, I had expected a little better from De La Hoya than this, if this indeed turns out to be his opponent for his tune-up bout.
If at all possible, I would like to see De La Hoya go up against a legitimate welterweight fighter, preferably one who is in the top 15 in the division. However, that would probably too risky for the 35 year-old De La Hoya, as many of them would have a very real chance at beating him. At his age, and with his history of fading badly in the second half of his fights, he’d be in trouble if any of them made it past round six.
I think De La Hoya would be more than a handful most of the welterweights in the first half of the fight, possibly enough to knock some of them out. The problem, of course, is that if De La Hoya fails at knocking them out, he’s in for trouble unless he takes a particularly weak opponent, or a small one. In the case of Forbes, De La Hoya would have a perfect opponent to look good against, and beat handily.
Forbes, a light puncher even when fighting as a light welterweight, has shown zero power as a welterweight. He’s not particularly fast either, another important factor that makes him an appealing option. However, the thought of De La Hoya selecting opponents that are smaller than him, like Malignaggi or Forbes, seems a little off putting to me. I wouldn’t mind him fighting a lower ranked welterweight, as long as he was ranked in the top 20-25, but to dip down to the light welterweight division seems very unappealing to me.
Naturally, the public probably doesn’t care who De La Hoya fights, and will be none the wiser if he were to fight an even smaller opponent. I care, though, because it seems to go against what sports is all about. In general, you’d like to think that a fight is fair going into a bout, but if you know that a fighter is clearly larger than his opponent, such as would be the case with De La Hoya and Forbes or Malignaggi, it seems to tarnish the victory in my eyes. At 35, I guess you take victories where you can find them, even if it means having to beat a smaller fighter to get them.