De La Hoya – Three And Out

By Boxing News - 02/27/2008 - Comments

By Tim Williams: The Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) has come in the past two days, saying that it’s time for him to hang up his gloves after he completes three more fights that he has on the agenda, thus wrapping up a 16 year professional boxing career, including a Gold Medal in the 1992 Olympic Games. De La Hoya, 35, has planned bouts against light welterweight Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs) on May 3rd, followed by a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. on September 20th. It remains to be seen who De La Hoya will choose for his final bout, perhaps WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto or light welterweight Ricky Hatton.

However, it’s likely to be someone that De La Hoya can beat, for it seems logical that he will want to go out on a winning note rather than having lost his last two bouts of his career. Of course, De La Hoya will be soundly beaten by Mayweather, that’s almost a given. The real mystery is whom he’ll be fighting for his final bout. Whoever it is, they’ll be the equivalent of a lottery winner if De La Hoya picks them.

In a recent interview, De La Hoya had this to say: “I’ve been thinking about this for the longest time now, and now is the perfect year,” he said. “The fact that my body can still do it, the fact that my mind wants to do it…I want to go out with a bang.”

Judging by his last comment, it would seem to suggest that he wants to win his last fight, and that would mean that he’s going to either need to take on a much smaller fighter than him, like Hatton, or another washed up fighter that he can possibly beat. At this stage in his career, there are no easy victories for him because of his diminished skills. He very likely should have hanged up his gloves long ago, perhaps as long as five years ago when he was beaten by Shane Mosley for the second time, and then given a gift decision over Felix Sturm.

De La Hoya looked bad in both bouts, and even worse in being stopped in the 9th round by Bernard Hopkins in September 2004. De La Hoya was pretty much through as a boxer at that point, not making another appearance until almost two years later when he stopped a ring worn Ricardo Mayorga in the 6th round in May 2006. A year later, De La Hoya lost yet again, this time to Mayweather in May 2007. As you can see, De La Hoya was finding it hard to get a ‘W,’ which is where the light welterweight Steve Forbes comes in.

By taking on a smaller fighter like Forbes, who isn’t even a top 10 in his own division, De La Hoya is getting someone that he can overwhelm on size alone. It won’t take much speed to beat a fighter as small as Forbes, because De La Hoya can stand back and jab him all night and not have to take any chances at all with him. In a way, it’s a similar situation as IBF heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko’s recent unification match with the much smaller Sultan Ibragimov.

If you have the size advantage like De La Hoya will be having, the fight becomes almost a game of target practice. Obviously, De La Hoya has to take the bout very seriously, because he stands to lose a lot if he gets beaten by Forbes. The bout with Mayweather would be thrown out the window, as would final fight against the still unnamed opponent. If De La Hoya is off against Forbes, as he was against Sturm and Hopkins, Forbes just may have the stamina to pound out a decision victory. However, I highly doubt it, because he would have to severely beat De la Hoya to come out on the winning end on the judges’ scorecards.

I doubt that they’ll let him get the decision if it is in anyway somewhat close in the end. As for De La Hoya’s bout with Mayweather, it will be a boring affair, somewhat like the first bout in which De La Hoya ran out of gas in the final rounds of the bout. Can’t see any different outcome than that. De La Hoya looks good early round, perhaps for three or four rounds, and then takes a hiding by Mayweather in the final eight rounds of the bout.