By Dave Lahr: Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) plans on giving a statement today about his boxing career at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles. The hopes here is that De La Hoya makes the right decision and chooses to retire rather than continue on with his career. At 36, it’s high time that Oscar fades away into oblivion and takes his many millions with him. It’s not that he wasn’t a good fighter at one time, but that was a long time ago and he hasn’t looked good in ages.
With the economy being really bad right now and PPV bouts costing $50 or more, it’s just not worth it anymore to pay so much just to watch De La Hoya get beat up by someone. There isn’t even hope that he’ll win unless he fights someone really small like Steve Forbes. And you know him, he wants to fight mainly good fighters even if it means dipping down into the super featherweight and lightweight divisions to find one small enough for him to beat.
It’s not worth it to watch him fight and it’s not even interesting anymore except in speculating how badly he’ll be beaten or how small his opponent will be. In a way, De La Hoya reminds me of an old dog that I used to have. When my dog was young, he’d jump around and play for hours fetching sticks and jumping for balls that I’d throw to him.
However, when he got old, his eyesight was poor, he didn’t want to play anymore, and couldn’t get across the room without bumping into furniture along the way. Finally, I had to make an important decision and have him put down. I think it’s high time that De La Hoya steps down from the sport of boxing because he’s starting to remind me of my dog.
He needs to be put out of his misery and retire from boxing. The 8th round loss Pacquiao should have served the trick of putting De La Hoya out of his misery, but if he’s still undecided then perhaps he needs a fight against James Kirkland or Angulo to help him along the way. Its better that he retire now rather than stick around and get decapitated by a younger light middleweight like James Kirkland or Alfredo Angulo. I can’t imagine that De La Hoya will want to continue fighting at welterweight after being pounded into an 8th round stoppage by Manny Pacquiao in December.
That was probably a painful lesson for De La Hoya that he’d prefer not happen again. That means that De La Hoya would be effectively fighting as a light middleweight again, because he’s not going to be fighting as middleweight because he was taken apart by Bernard Hopkins in a 9th round stoppage in 2004, and was given a huge gift decision over Felix Sturm also in 2004.
That would be suicide if De La Hoya went back to that weight. And at light middleweight, I can’t see any fighters that are poor enough for De La Hoya to beat. Ricardo Mayorga, who De La Hoya stopped in the 6th round in 2006, would probably take De La Hoya’s head off right about now because he’s been fighting halfway decent lately.
Fans wouldn’t want to see that fight again and neither would I. I suppose of De La Hoya is really hard up for money he could try to get Felix Trinidad or Roy Jones Jr. in the ring. Either of those opponents would give Oscar a good payday, but I’m not sure if Oscar wants to risk getting knocked out again.
I think Jones would destroy De La Hoya right now, and Trinidad still can probably punch hard enough to take Oscar out in six or seven rounds similar to the way that Manny did. However, it’s best that De La Hoya hang up the gloves rather than continue fighting and taking beatings. He’s lost four out of his last seven fights, and it should probably be five out of his last seven because the Sturm victory is very questionable.
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