De La Hoya: “One more [Fight] and that’s it”

By Boxing News - 06/12/2008 - Comments

dela-hoya35353.jpgBy Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) perhaps still smarting from the rejection by light welterweight Ricky Hatton, who declined to step in and fight De La Hoya in September, as well as Floyd Mayweather Jr’s recent retirement, De La Hoya told Reuters on Wednesday, “One more and that’s it. This is my final year. I’m doing one fight and hanging up the gloves.” De La Hoya also had comments directed for Mayweather, saying “The time is running out. If Mayweather is playing these little games thinking he can catch me at an older age next year, it’s not going to happen. It has to happen by this year.”

It seems that De La Hoya hasn’t given up on his number one goal, a second fight with Mayweather, which would obviously bring De La Hoya another huge payday before he hangs up the boxing gloves. The two had been scheduled to fight on September 20th, but Mayweather blew those plans last week, when he suddenly announced his retirement from boxing, and said that it would be “permanent.” De La Hoya, whom had been counting on that fight a great deal, was left with no dancing partner for his September open date.

With Hatton turning him down, De La Hoya’s options became much less appealing as he would have to either take on tougher fighters, like Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto – arguably two of the most popular fighters in the welterweight division at this time -or a much smaller fighter like Manny Pacquiao, a super featherweight. In his telephone interview with Reuters, De La Hoya, indeed, mentioned all three fighters, Cotto, Margarito or Pacquiao as potential opponents.

However, it seemed that the way that De La Hoya was mentioning them, he was hoping that Mayweather would get the fear of loss and come to his senses and take the fight with De La Hoya. It’s doubtful that Mayweather will bite at De La Hoya’s offer, for Floyd has enough money now to last him a long time, and he’s still young enough to afford to wait until something really interesting comes his way. I doubt that Mayweather believes that De La Hoya would stay retired for long, especially since up until his last fight, De La Hoya was mostly losing all his bouts since 2003. It’s not like being retired for a spell would hurt him much worse than he’s already been in recent years.

De La Hoya, as much as he might be saying that he would like to fight Cotto or Margarito, don’t bet on that happening. De La Hoya’s not about to fight either of them, the way I see it. He’s not interested in taking a beating, especially if it’s his last fight of his career. Like I said, I see him using Cotto and Margarito’s names a decoy, hoping to trick Mayweather back into ring for one last fight with him. Never mind the fact that most people could care less about watching the fight, since there’s no mystery or drama about who will be the ultimate winner of the bout.

Who blame the boxing fans? It’s not interesting when you know who’s going to win, and let’s be clear here: De La Hoya would have no chance against Mayweather whatsoever. For that reason, I personally hope that Mayweather stays retired so that we don’t have to sit through another travesty. If De La Hoya wants to fight only one more time, let him take the hard fight and go up against Cotto or Margarito. Of course, he won’t, but I sure wish he would. Unless I miss my guess, unless Mayweather comes back, look for De La Hoya to take on Pacquiao in his last fight of his career.

De La Hoya had previously been talking about fighting two more times, once in September and then a final time in December. Now it’s down to one and done. The thing of it is De La Hoya seems to be retiring now more out of necessity than by any real choice. With Hatton turning him down and Mayweather retiring, that pretty much removes the two biggest names in boxing off the table for De La Hoya.

Though it would be interesting to watch him fight Cotto, Margarito or Pacquiao, none of those fights would come close to making as much money or publicity as a bout with either Hatton or Mayweather, and De La Hoya knows this all too well. He doesn’t want to have to settle for much lower than what he’s had in the past. In that respect, I guess you could say that he’s become somewhat spoiled.