By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya has started his training for his October 11th exhibition fight on Triller pay-per-view. The 48-year-old De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) is supposed to be facing former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort in an eight round exhibition.
De La Hoya has high hopes of convincing Floyd Mayweather Jr to give him a rematch after he gets a couple of fights under his belt.
If Oscar gets his wish, he’ll cash in with a massive payday in an exhibition match against the 44-year-old Mayweather Jr in 2022. De La Hoya lost a 12 round split decision to Mayweather in 2007 in a fight that brought in 2.4 million PPV buys, which was a record.
We’ll see how that goes with that fight the former division world champion De La Hoya, who last fought in 2008. The ‘Golden Boy’ Oscar says his current weight is at 186 lbs, and he wants to get it down to around 176 lbs for his exhibition on September 11th.
For a 48-year-old, De La Hoya looks good moving around, throwing punches. Whether he’ll be effective inside the ring against the 44-year-old Belfort remains to be seen.
You have to remember that De La Hoya hasn’t been hit since his eighth round stoppage loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2008, and he hasn’t been staying in tip-top shape over the last thirteen years.
Dela Hoya says fight announcement coming soon
“It took me about three weeks to get into a routine after so much time and months, but it’s on, baby. I’m back,” said Oscar De La Hoya on social media about him starting preparation for his exhibition bout in September. “Fight announcement coming soon, seriously soon.”
Some boxing fans won’t mind that De La Hoya is choosing an MMA fighter, Belfort, to fight instead of a boxer. They want to see De La Hoya fight regardless of who he faces.
You can argue that De La Hoya chose an MMA fighter for two reasons. One, it will bring in a ton of younger UFC fans to pay to see De La Hoya’s fight with Belfort. If De La Hoya chose a retired boxer, there might not be as much interest from the boxing world as he’s retired for so long.
The younger fans of the sport will have never seen De La Hoya fight and would be less likely to purchase his fight on PPV.
Secondly, choosing an MMA fighter will increase De La Hoya’s chances of winning. While MMA guys have decent stand-up skills, they’re over-matched when facing high-level boxers.
“Just a little warmup before I worked hard and smart; as my training progresses, I’m feeling faster, and my timing is on point,” said De La Hoya. “Weighing in at about 186 right now will drop 10 pounds by fight Sep. 11
“Age is just a number, kids. When people tell me that I’m too old, I respond by letting them know that the mind is a powerful tool when prepared mentally and physically,” said De La Hoya.
If De La Hoya loses this fight with Belfort, it’s going to be interesting to see what his reaction will be. Will De La Hoya continue with his exhibitions or give up and return to the easy life of a millionaire?
A knockout loss for De La Hoya is certainly a possibility with him coming out of retirement after all these years. In his workout video, De La Hoya looks much slower on his feet than during his career.
Belfort is a big guy with power, and he’s kept his career going in MMA. That gives him a considerable edge over De La Hoya and it doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have a background in boxing. Belfort can punch, which may be too much for the middle-aged De La Hoya to handle.