By Jim Dower: It was a sad, pitiful sight to see former boxing great Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) getting pummeled by the small Manny Pacquiao on December 6th, and what was even worse than that, was watching De La Hoya pull a “no mas” by quitting on his stool after the 8th round rather than coming out for the 9th and fighting to his last breath. The beating was bad, but the quitting seemed to compound the ordeal, making a bad situation even worse. His face badly beaten, his left eye swollen almost shut, De La Hoya looked as if he had been in a terrible car accident, leaving looking ragged.
Now, he may want to continue fighting beyond into the future, but I think that’s probably not the wisest of moves. De La Hoya is probably capable of struggling on for a few more years, picking opponents like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Felix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr., or Shane Mosley.
But the way De La Hoya fought against Pacquiao, he risks injury if he continues fighting no matter who it is. De La Hoya had no defense against Pacquiao, and was just taking shots like a sparring partner. In fact, De La Hoya looked little more than a sparring partner in the fight, especially in the 6th round when he retreated to the ropes and covered up while Pacquiao beat him nearly senseless.
De La Hoya’s face looked badly swelled by the end of that round, both red and swollen like a large pumpkin. I can only imagine how he’ll look against other fighters if he decides on continuing. While I think he was a great fighter at one point in his career, he just doesn’t seem to have it anymore.
Given the savage beating that he took from Pacquiao, I doubt De La Hoya will be crazy enough to fight a dangerous fighter like Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto, but I do think he’s not going to hang up his gloves just yet.
There’s too much easy money out there for him to retire just not. Fans have short memories, especially ones that have little understanding or time to absorb the current events in boxing. For them, all it takes is a good PR campaign, selling a De La Hoya fight against one of the old relics of the sport or against someone like Chavez Jr., and they’re sold. But whatever money that De La Hoya gets, I hope it’s worth him taking all this extra punishment.
Even old fighters like Trinidad, Fernando Vargas and Jones, have plenty of pop left and can do a lot of damage in a 10 or 12-round fight. Other than, say, Vargas, I can’t see De La Hoya stopping any of them, meaning that he’ll be forced to take shots to a certain extent for the duration of the bouts.
At this point, I question that he can beat any of those old fighters, especially Mosley and Jones. I think De La Hoya would take a beating if he fought either of them, and would likely either retire once again, quitting at some point or have the referee step in and stop the fight while he’s getting shelled. Hopefully, he spares himself another humiliating beating and quits out of the ring instead of inside it again.