By Scott Gilfoid: Now that Oscar De La Hoya has been beaten into submission by Manny Pacquiao, it’s probably about the end for De La Hoya as far as huge mega fights go. After all, it’s highly doubtful that the boxing public would stomach watching him fight another undersized fighter from several weight classes below him, and even if he were to do it, he’d probably get thrashed as badly as he did against Pacquiao.
Unfortunately for De La Hoya, he’s probably reached the end of the line with his mega PPV fights. That’s not to say that he can’t continue fighting and making a lot of money for a little while, but nothing like the kind of cash that he’s made in fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins. At this point, he’ll probably have to downsize his aspirations somewhat and have to settle for making a lot less in fights than he’s been making.
Likewise, he’s going to have to be very selective with his opponents to ensure that he doesn’t take another beating like the one he took against Pacquiao, because that wasn’t pretty. It also wasn’t pretty to see De La Hoya quit on his stool, and rob the many boxing fans that had paid huge money to see him fight.
He at least could have fought until the end and been counted out in the classical sense. Once a fighter starts quitting, especially when they do it on their stool, a lot of fans lose their trust in them and see the fighter as possibly doing it again in the future if the going gets tough.
At 35, looking more like 40 in terms of what he has left, De La Hoya doesn’t have a lot of fighters he could probably still beat at this point. However, there are a few that I can see him beating still, and if he’s smart, he may be able to prolong his career in a kind of circus/exhibition manner and get another two to three more years out of his diminishing talent.
Below, I’ve listed the fighters that De La Hoya could probably still beat. I say probably because the way he looked last Saturday, I can’t say for sure that he’s capable of beating anyone in the top 15 in any weight class from super feather weight on up.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. – The younger son of boxing great, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Julio Jr. has looked mediocre in beating mainly C-class fighters and has struggled in the last three fights and looked nothing short of terrible in each. With his name and unbeaten record, he would be the perfect opponent for De La Hoya to cash in on the younger Chavez’s popularity in the Mexican community and give him his first defeat. It’s going to happen sooner or later for Chavez Jr., as soon as he fights someone halfway good, so it might as well be against De La Hoya which would give Chavez a huge payday. Of course, beating him would be nothing special, because although Chavez is ranked high in the World Boxing Council, as far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t belong in the top 40, much less the top 10. Even an over-the-hill De La Hoya could probably beat him.
Felix Trinidad – Now 35 like Oscar, Trinidad has been a mere shadow of himself of since losing to Hopkins in 2001, and has lost three out of his last five fights, while fighting only five times in seven years. De La Hoya has unfinished business with him after losing a 12-round majority decision to him in 1999. De La Hoya did well in the first half of the fight, building up a good lead but then ran the last six rounds and ended up losing to him. Now, nine years later, it would still be a fight that would attract a certain amount of attention, even though both fighters are nothing like they once were. At this point, it’s a tossup who would win. If you asked me who would win a week ago, I’d have said De La Hoya. Now, though, I’m not so certain.
Fernando Vargas – Another one of De La Hoya’s former opponents, one that he beat by an exciting 11th round stoppage in 2002. Vargas has since lost three out of his last seven fights since then, including three consecutive losses. Vargas has battled weight issues in recent years and it’s unclear whether he could make it down to middleweight. More likely, De La Hoya would have to meet him at super middleweight in order for the fight to come off. That would put De La Hoya at a big disadvantage because he looked terrible when he moved up to the middleweight division in fights against Felix Sturm and Hopkins. However, it would make the fight interesting while it lasted.
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