By Manuel Perez: If you’re like me, you were expecting much more from Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) for his so-called last fight of his boxing career likely against super featherweight Manny Pacquiao (37-5, 27 KOs) on December 6th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Besides the whole silly image of a fighter of De La Hoya’s size going out of the game against Pacquiao, whose miniature 5’6″ frame is going to make him look like a Lilliputian next to the 5’11” De La Hoya, the fight isn’t what the public wants from Oscar for his final fight. Heck, he’s already fought two consecutive smaller fighters in Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Steve Forbes, fighters obviously chosen, among other reasons, for their smaller size and inability to hurt the bigger De La Hoya.

After these match-ups, do we really need to see Oscar go up against yet another undersized fighter? The answer is no. It’s time that De La Hoya grows a pair and summons some courage to take on WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, who has been making it no secret that he wants to fight De La Hoya. A fight against Pacquiao, although a fight that would pad De La Hoya’s wallet, wouldn’t make him look particularly brave to the boxing public, and if this is truly his last fight, it would likely leave an impression of him that he was ducking the best welterweight fighter in boxing, Margarito, in order to face a fighter too small to give him a fight.

De La Hoya, 35, mentioned previously that he would be interested in fighting the winner of Miguel Cotto vs. Margarito, yet when Margarito, arguably the bigger threat and more dangerous opponent, emerged as the winner, De La Hoya has so far failed to show any interest in the fight, and instead has began looking at facing Pacquiao. I guess from De La Hoya’s standpoint, a fight against the smaller 5’7″ Cotto would have been a winnable fight for him, given his smaller size than De La Hoya, although I still think that Cotto would have won the fight anyway. But, at least De La Hoya wouldn’t take a major beating like he most probably would against Margarito, a fighter that not only beats his opponents, but often tears up their faces in the process with his powerful ripping hooks.

It’s been four years since De La Hoya took on a fighter – Bernard Hopkins – that was his roughly the same size as him and who had equal talent. I don’t count Ricardo Mayorga, who De La Hoya stopped in the 6th round in June 2006, because he wasn’t the same fighter after having been taken apart by Felix Trinidad two years earlier in 2004. We know that De La Hoya after the fight with Hopkins, which De La Hoya was stopped in the 9th round with a body shot, he waited two years before facing the faded Mayorga, then another year before he faced the smaller Mayweather.

We know that instead of fighting a fighter his own size in his last fight, De La Hoya took on the smaller, weaker, Steve Forbes in May 2008. Other than the fight with Hopkins, though, De La Hoya hasn’t taken big risks against the top welterweights or light middleweights in the division. Of course, he would probably say that there wasn’t a fighter in either division popular enough for him to fight, but I see that as more of an excuse than anything. If De La Hoya is willing to fight Mayorga and Forbes, neither fighter a big name in boxing, then why not against Margarito?

If De La Hoya wants to regain the respect from the boxing community as well as his old fans, I think he needs to forget about Pacquiao and focus on facing Margarito on December 6th. This is the fight that people want to see, the fight that will sell the most tickets and the fight that will leave a lasting impression with boxing fans. Even if De La Hoya loses the fight, he will be remembered for having courage up until the last moment of his career rather than someone that sought out easier fights against smaller fighters.