By Eric Thomas: In a bit of odd news around the boxing world, Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) is reportedly not going to be retiring after his embarrassing 8th round stoppage loss to Manny Pacquiao on December 6th, and will possibly be fighting undefeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (38-0-1, 29 KOs) in May, a bout that could take place in Mexico. Chavez Jr., 22, the son of former boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez, who twice was stopped by De La Hoya – once in a 4th round stoppage in 1996 and final time in a 8th round TKO in 1998.
De La Hoya, now 35, caught Chavez Sr. at the end of his great career, and had too much speed for the old warrior. By that time, Chavez Sr. was around the same age that De La Hoya is now, making Oscar’s potential fight against the younger twenty-two year old Chavez Jr. as a kind of role reversal of sorts. However, despite his impressive 38-0 record, Chavez Jr. appears to have none of the same skills that De La Hoya had in his youth.
Apart from big power, especially when punching to the body, Chavez Jr. doesn’t have the hand speed, stamina, ring movement, work rate or the amateur background that De La Hoya had going for him in his early youth. But then again, Chavez Jr. does have youth and impressive power, which may be enough to take out the 35-year-old De La Hoya, who looked totally shot in his fight with Pacquiao earlier this month.
If it had been Chavez Jr. who De La Hoya was facing on that night instead of Pacquiao, I have little doubts that Oscar would have been defeated just as easy, perhaps even quicker. When Chavez Jr. is firing on all eight cylinders, he’s a tough fighter, with awesome power in each hand and an ability to hurt his opponents with a brutal body attack.
Granted, his work rate is lacking at times and he sometimes fades later in the fight, but Chavez Jr. should have more than enough offensive firepower to take out the version of De La Hoya that we recently saw against Pacquiao. De La Hoya looked old, weak and well past it against Pacquiao, only capable of fighting hard for a couple of rounds before wearing out and taking massive shots from Pacquiao.
Chavez Jr. is currently ranked #6 in the World Boxing Council light middleweight division, and recently defeated Mat Vanda for the 2nd time in a 10-round unanimous decision in November. Their first bout, a 10-round split decision victory for Chavez Jr. in July, was marred by controversy as Chavez was ill at the time with a fever and performed poorly, barely doing enough to get the win.
He was booed afterwards by the large Mexican crowd, who took the opportunity to show their displeasure with his performance by showering the ring with bottles and garbage. In the rematch, however, Chavez Jr. dominated the entire fight, landing well with body shots and hurting Vanda on a couple of occasions with big punches.
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