By Chris Williams: Two months after being beaten nearly senseless by Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya is reportedly kicking around the idea of retiring from boxing. De La Hoya, 36, is still not sure what to do, seemingly confused about whether he should retire or continue on. Watching the success of his fellow Golden Boy Promotions coworkers Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley still fighting with a lot of success is something that is keeping De La Hoya still considering staying on a little longer.
De La Hoya is reportedly favoring retirement right now, with his wife also wanting him to hang up the gloves for good. However, there are other friends and family members who would like him to keep fighting, pointing out that it was bad night for him. In that, there’s a lot of truth because De La Hoya sure did look awful against Pacquiao.
But in looking at how bad De La Hoya stunk against Pacquiao, it’s hard to say that it was because he simply got old overnight. Anytime a fighter puts himself on a high protein diet with low carbohydrates the way that De La Hoya did in his efforts to get down in weight for his battle against Pacquiao, they’re asking for it.
I’m just wondering why De La Hoya isn’t smart enough to realize that a big part of why he looked so bad was because he was in a state of partial starvation at the time of the fight. Anyone who has ever dieted seriously and then tried to do something athletic and strenuous will tell you that you’re never the same as what you were before you started the diet.
You might be able to run longer than you could before you started the diet, but no way will you have strength for power sports like boxing or wrestling. The way that De La Hoya looked on that night, it was as if he had trained for a marathon rather than a boxing match. I’m sure he was in great shape for an anaerobic activity such as a long 10 mile run, but not for a boxing match.
I’m certain that if this was a 10 mile race with De La Hoya and Pacquiao on December 6th instead of a boxing match, De La Hoya would have smoked him and came in as the winner in record time while Pacquiao was still in his 3rd or 4th mile.
For that reason, I think De La Hoya would be absolutely insane to retire now rather than eat normally and take a fight at a higher weight like light middleweight or middleweight. I’m sure that if he eats normally, forgets his stupid diet, and fights someone a little easier like John Duddy, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Fernando Vargas, Felix Trinidad or Roy Jones Jr., De La Hoya would have an excellent chance of winning.
Best of all, he’d still probably be able to make the fights PPV and still make more money than popular fighters like Ricky Hatton and Pacquiao. Boxing fans, for the most part, hardly care who he fights as long as the fighter has somewhat of a name.
Comments are closed.