By Chris Williams: Oscar De La Hoya’s big comeback fight with Triller on July 3rd will reportedly be against a “big” name from the UFC, not a top-level fighter from the boxing world. De La Hoya’s comeback fight for Triller is being targeted for the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
That’s a venue that is allowing crowds, so De La Hoya could bring in a lot of boxing fans from the area, as long as his opponent is a “big” name and not some unknown scrub.
The 48-year-old De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) dramatically announced his plans for this week in revealing the news during the Triller promoted Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren fight that is planned for April 17th.
Is De La Hoya fighting McGregor on July 3rd?
The ideal top UFC guy for De La Hoya to fight would be Conor McGregor, regardless of the fact that he recently lost to Dustin Poirier by a second-round knockout at UFC 257 on January 24th.
The event brought in a massive 1.6 million pay-per-view buys, thanks to McGregor. If Triller can get McGregor to agree to face De La Hoya, it would bring in massive PPV buys.
McGregor is pretty much the only big name from the UFC that boxing fans would be eager to see De La Hoya fight unless somehow they could lure Khabib to take the fight. Chris Williams can’t see that happening, and it’s doubtful Dana White, the president of the UFC, would be open to letting De La Hoya fight him.
It would look bad for the Khabib and the UFC for him to be blown out by 48-year-old De La Hoya, and that’s likely what would happen.
But rather than giving details about his July 3rd opponent, De La Hoya dropped the microphone after telling Triller co-owner Snoop Dogg about his plans for his return to the ring after 13 years of retirement.
Oscar has multi-fight deal with Triller
De La Hoya’s July 3rd fight against a big name from the UFC won’t be a one-shot deal for the former six-division world champion with Triller.
According to ESPN, De La Hoya has a “multi-fight deal with Triller,” which means he’ll be with them for a while. For that reason, it makes sense for Oscar’s first fight with Triller to be against a star from the UFC because that will increase his chances of winning.
Most UFC guys lack the boxing background to deal with a professional boxer, particularly a former six-division world champion like De La Hoya.
If De La Hoya fought a top boxer, as he’d been talking about wanting to do, he would likely be annihilated just based on his age alone. There aren’t too many 48-year-olds that can come out of retirement after 13 years and deal with an elite-level fighter.
As long as Triller is careful with the type of opposition they match against De La Hoya, he’ll be fine and bring in the pay-per-view buys for their event.
De La Hoya wants Floyd Mayweather Jr rematch
Oscar wants to fight a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr, a fighter that narrowly beat him by a 12 round split decision in 2007.
Their fight 14 years ago brought in a whopping 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, a record that stood for eight years until it was wiped out by the 4.6 million buys the Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight hauled in back in 2015.
De La Hoya called out Mayweather last week, letting him know that he’s interested in facing him in a long-awaited rematch. Mayweather is already signed to fight YouTuber Logan Paul next on a still-to-be-determined date.
Even if Mayweather decides against fighting De La Hoya, the ‘Golden Boy’ can make good money fighting on the Triller cards against UFC guys and old-timers. That would be the best bet for De La Hoya.
Oscar is like an old car with a lot of miles on him. It would be a mistake for Triller to put him in with active boxer like Gennadiy Golovkin or Jermell Charlo.