By Jim Dower: Going from a massive fight that would have likely brought in huge PPV dollar numbers, Oscar De La Hoya has suddenly had a lowering of expectations, turning his sights to WBC light middleweight champion Sergio Mora as his final opponent of his career on December 6th. The fight, however, isn’t a solid lock because Mora still would need to defeat former light middleweight champion Vernon Forrest in their rematch on September 13th. That’s going to be a tall order for Mora, because Forrest looked to be having an off night, and even then he landed the better shots and came close to defeating Mora.

With motivation, Forrest will likely beat Mora, which will send De La Hoya scurrying about yet again looking for another opponent. I doubt for a second that De La Hoya would show any interested in fighting the tough Forrest, because he punches hard and might damage the face of De La Hoya, sending him potentially to his retirement in defeat. De La Hoya is reportedly having no trouble with discussing of the financial terms of the fight with Mora’s promoter, and it seems that they’re not adverse to the terms like Manny Pacquiao recently was this week.

After weeks of negotiations, De La Hoya got a big shock when Pacquiao walked away from the bargaining table, refusing to take the 70-30 purse split offer that De La Hoya offered him. One would have hoped that either De La Hoya or Pacquiao would come back to the bargaining table, agreeing to take a lesser cut. However, neither at this point appears to be willing to give in, which makes the need for De La Hoya to find a replacement opponent.

Most boxing fan had hoped that De La Hoya would move upwards against a bigger threat and more appealing opponent like Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto, but De La Hoya appears to be interested in fighting neither of them. If you’re a De La Hoya fan, I suppose you can excuse it away, feeling sorry for him and wanting him to be able to retire in one piece, preferably with a victory. However, the problem is De La Hoya is going to be making his last fight a PPV bout, naturally, and will in all likelihood it will have a price tag of $50-60 dollars for fans to watch the fight. That’s not particularly appealing if he’s planning on a fighter like Mora, a former star of The Contender reality television series, which’s mainly known only in the Los Angeles area and not much else.

Indeed, this would be a local fight, one for the bragging rights to be the kind of East Los Angeles, where both Mora and De La Hoya come from. The rest of the U.S., and world, could care less about this regional trophy, as it means nothing to normal people. Hence, there’s no real interest aside from people who live in East Los Angeles, or those who may have seen Mora during his brief time on television in The Contender series.

His style isn’t interesting to watch, involving a lot of movement, jabs, fakes and clinching. He has no power, which probably is what De La Hoya sees in him. His title is also something that De La Hoya is probably drooling over, knowing that he might be able to get another crown without having to risk his neck in tough – if not impossible – fights with Margarito or Paul Williams, the WBO welterweight champion. If De La Hoya does carry out with his desire to fight Mora, and if Mora does somehow get by Forrest, this bout will likely fail to please boxing fans and send De La Hoya to his retirement on a sour note.