By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya is 47-years-old, and he’ll be returning to the ring soon for a comeback after 12 long, hard years in retirement. The former six-division world champion De La Hoya believes he still has a lot left in the tank despite the way his career imploded in his last fight in 2008 in retiring on his stool in the 8th round against the much smaller Manny Pacquiao.
Oscar (39-6, 30 KOs) wants to battle top junior middleweights and middleweights when he returns to the ring. No opposition for him, which suggests that his comeback could be nasty, brutish, and short. As old as De La Hoya is, you don’t come out of a 12-year retirement at 47 and take on the top guys right away.
Oscar doesn’t want to take his time
Even former heavyweight champion George Foreman knew better than to take on quality opposition when he came out of his 10-year retirement in 1987 at the age of 39.
Foreman waited four years before facing his first talented opponent in Evander Holyfield in 1991 and lost to him by a competitive 12 round decision. Before that, Foreman made a lot of money as a product endorser for the ‘Foreman Grill,’ and that turned out to be a goldmine for him.
The 47-year-old De La Hoya cannot afford to wait four years before he begins facing elite-level opposition, because he’s not as young as Foreman was, and he’s not blessed with his size and power to compete with younger guys than himself the way that ‘Big’ George did.
“The rumors are true, and I’m going to start sparring in the next few weeks,” De La Hoya said to ESPN. “These guys are in it just for the money — that’ll be a big difference. I will fight for the glory, and these guys only fight for the money. And guess what? The glory will always win.”
Too much inactivity
De La Hoya has been out of the ring for so long that the younger boxing fans will have never seen him, and likely have any interest in watching his fights.
Additionally, many of the older boxing fans that still remember him are no longer following the sport and have drifted on to watching MMA and NFL football.
When you’ve been out of the sport for as long as De La Hoya has, there won’t be enough fans left that remember watching him during his heyday.
As long as De La Hoya is aware that he’s not likely to make massive money on pay-per-view for his comeback, he should be okay. Also, it’s a good idea for Oscar to know what he’s getting himself into with his recovery.
If his goal is to try and be competitive with a young lion, then he can consider it a moral victory. But it’s entirely unrealistic for ‘The Golden Boy’ to return to the ring, thinking he can beat the likes of Jermell Charlo, Jeison Rosario, Gennady Golovkin, or Jermall Charlo.
If you put De La Hoya in with one of the champions at 154 or 160, it’s going to badly for him. It would be better for Oscar to select someone at least partially flawed so that he can increase his chances of winning a world title if he does choose to come back like as says he’s going to.
The more vulnerable champions at 154 and 160:
- Erislandy Lara – WBA 154
- Patrick Teixeira – WBO 154
- Michel Soro – WBA Gold 154lb
- Ryota Murata – WBA ‘regular’ 160
- Demetrius Andrade – WBO 160
De La Hoya not impressed with today’s fighters
“Any top guy, any top guy out there,” said De La Hoya when asked who he wishes to face for his comeback. “All these fighters are not of the level that was 15, 20 years [ago], all these fighters are demanding so much money, all these fighters are demanding the moon.”
It sounds like De La Hoya is getting mixed up by wearing his promoter’s hat and his hat a fighter. It doesn’t matter how much money fighters are demanding when it comes to his return to the ring.
As a challenger, De La Hoya will look out of place if he asks for the lion’s share of the revenue in fighting for a world title against the likes of WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo, IBF champ Gennady Golovkin or WBC 154lb belt-holder Jermell Charlo.
Money should be the least of De La Hoya’s worries when returning to the ring after 12 years of retirement. His focus needs to be on getting in the best shape possible, testing himself against elite-level fighters during his training camp, and not bite off more than he can chew in facing someone too good.
It’s unlikely that any of the state boxing commissions will agree to let De La Hoya challenge for a world title in his first fight back. They may allow De La Hoya to fight a world champion in an exhibition-level battle, but not for a world title.
That’s not going to happen. Floyd Mayweather Jr was able to fight UFC fighter Conor McGregor in a professional fight in 2017, but that wasn’t for a world title. As such, as long as De La Hoya is aware that he won’t be able to challenge a world champion like the Charlo brothers, GGG or Canelo Alvarez, he should be fine.
Is hard work enough?
“And they’re forgetting that you must train hard, you must work hard. So that’s a huge advantage for me because I know what it takes to train hard, I know how to train smart. I know how to fight smart in the ring.
When you get to De La Hoya’s age of 47, it doesn’t how hard you work. You’re not going to be magically transformed to the level of a fighter in their 20s by working hard.
In other words, there is no magic Fountain of Youth that will result from working harder. Working harder isn’t going to bring De La Hoya back to his glory days.
If anything, De La Hoya might wear himself out during training camp for his next fight, and he could end up just as deleted as he was during his last fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2008. Hopefully, De La Hoya doesn’t kid himself after his loss by saying he was draining from working too hard rather than facing the music about being too old.
De La Hoya’s top opponents during his career:
- Manny Pacquiao
- Shane Mosley
- Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad
- Floyd Mayweather Jr
- Bernard Hopkins
- Ricardo Mayorga
- Felix Sturm
- Fernando Vargas
- Oba Carr
- Julio Cesar Chavez
- Pernell Whitaker
- David Kamau
- Miguel Angel Gonzalez
- Rafael Ruelas
- John John Molina
- Hector Camacho
- Jesse James Leija
- Ike Quartey
- Arturo Gatti