By Aaron Klein: Last Saturday night the six-time world champion Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) showed that he still has what it takes to be a world champion in the process of pounding out a remarkably easy 12-round unanimous decision over former super featherweight champion Steve Forbes at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California. The win, although minor in some people’s eyes, was extraordinary in a sense that we got to see De La Hoya in the best shape he’d been in years, which allowed him to once again show his excellent ring skills without fading late in the fight like he’d done in many of his fights in the past eight years.
Beyond that, he showed that he wasn’t a washed up fighter, a tag that has been placed on him by many boxing pundits who have called out for him to retire from the sport. In so far as what I saw of him on Saturday night, I don’t think De La Hoya should retire at all, at least not yet. He looks like has a minimum of three years left at the top of the sport and he’d be crazy to get out of it now, just to appease a few negative sports writers. I can certainly understand where they’re coming from, though, for De La Hoya has looked bad in losses to Bernard Hopkins and his draw with Felix Sturm. Other than that, however, De La Hoya has nothing to be ashamed of for his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr., whom he lost by a split decision.
He in fact gave Mayweather , a fighter that is arguably the best fighter in boxing, his toughest fight of his career. If not for a tactical blunder on De La Hoya’s part in the last four rounds, in which he attempted to slug it out a little too much, he would have had an excellent chance at beating Mayweather. Other than Mayweather, De La Hoya has few opponents in the light middleweight division that can test him. He’d beat the current champions Vernon Forrest, Joachim Alcine, Sergeii Dzinziruk and Verno Phillips with ease. I wouldn’t advise De La Hoya to fight any of them, mind you, for none of them would interest fans much more than De La Hoya’s recent bout with Forbes.
By virtue of their low popularity and name recognition among fans, they’re not worthy for De La Hoya to waste time on fighting. After dealing with Mayweather, De La Hoya needs to go after Ricky Hatton, and them Manny Pacquiao. It’s not about championships anymore, for with De La Hoya’s popularity, he’s risen above them and doesn’t need to be weighed down with the useless title defenses against unknown fighters, most of which the fans could give two figs about seeing De La Hoya defend against. No, De La Hoya needs to shut out his critics, and be smart and go for the big fights, meaning Hatton and Pacquiao. Both fights would be tremendous in appeal and would make millions for De La Hoya, which he could pump into his Golden Boy promotional company.
At 35, he shouldn’t be thinking retirement until he’s close to forty. After dispatching Hatton and Pacquiao, then De La Hoya needs to focus on taking on a more dangerous fighter like Cotto or Margarito. I wouldn’t face them yet, because neither of which would compare to a fight with Pacquiao or Hatton in terms of popularity. Both of them, though it will likely be one after Cotto finishes beating Margarito in their upcoming bout, can afford to wait for De La Hoya. Most of all, Oscar can’t get caught up in what his critics are saying, because they understand what De La Hoya has been going through, with trying to start a business and keep his career going at the same time.
That’s got to have been a huge amount of work, not to mention headaches for De La Hoya, who never went to business school and has had to learn it all on the fly. De La Hoya is much better than what his recent past performances suggest, and he shouldn’t be blamed for not performing at his best, considering the fact that he was fighting one top level fighter after another without the typical soft fodder thrown in between.