By Eric Thomas: In an interview yesterday with Brian Kenny from the Sportscenter, Oscar de la Hoya commented on various things, from a second fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., how he’ll choose to fight Manny Pacquiao in their December 6th fight and his thoughts on the Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Joel Casamayor bout on Saturday night. When asked about a second bout with Mayweather, De La Hoya said, “If I could have that rematch, how different that fight would be. When I fought Floyd, it was easier when I was throwing the jab, but for some reason I stopped throwing it. If we did it again in the near future, it would be a whole different story, that’s for sure…I hear he needs money.”
In commenting on Pacquiao, De La Hoya had this to say, “I have to be smart, be rangy, and just have to make sure I have my hands up when he [Pacquiao] comes inside.”
When De La Hoya was asked why he chose to fight Pacquiao, a much smaller man than himself, he had this to say, “The fact that he challenged me. That the best fighter in the planet [Pacquiao] challenged me, that he said he was going to knock me out. I think the fact that Freddie Roach, who trained me, said I can’t pull the trigger anymore. Okay, let’s see what’s going to happen in December. Also, because of the fact that this is going to be the biggest even in boxing history. This is a global event, great for the sport.”
The thoughts about Mayweather were particularly interesting because it seemed to highlight the major mistake that De La Hoya made in the fight, which was abandoning his jab at the midpoint of the fight even though it was working well for him at the time against the shorter Mayweather. De La Hoya instead chose to slug it out with Mayweather for the remainder of the fight, and ended up taking a lot of shots to the head from the quicker, more elusive Mayweather. Since that time, De La Hoya has been kicking around the idea of a rematch with Mayweather.
However, that idea went down the drain with Mayweather’s recent retirement from boxing. However, most people believe – probably Oscar, too – that Mayweather will return at some point once he blows enough of his fortune on thing or another and ends up needing money bad to replace. Hopefully, for the sake of boxing, he doesn’t wait too long before making his comeback. His name will fade in time and if he waits too long, the interest might not be there by fans and Oscar may have aged and retired from the sport.
De La Hoya , 35, is supposedly fighting his last fight of his career on December 6th, but most fans feel that he would stick around if he were to be able to land a big money fight against Mayweather. However, if Mayweather chooses to stay out of the fight for more than a few years, the chances grow slim that De La Hoya would be still youthful enough to fight him at that point.
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