By Sean Jones: Oscar De La Hoya says he’s come down with COVID-19 despite being vaccinated, and he’s been forced to pull out of his September 11th fight against former UFC heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort.
With De La Hoya pulling out of the fight so suddenly, there are already boxing fans speculating that the ticket and PPV sales weren’t going well.
There are always going to be people that express doubt when a fighter pulls out suddenly, particularly when they haven’t fought in a long period, and they’re selling their fight on PPV.
Being out of the ring for over 10+ years, it’s a tough ask for De La Hoya to be selling his fight on PPV.
The 48-year-old former five-division world champion De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) posted on his Twitter site, saying that he’s sick and pulled out of the fight. Interestingly, De La Hoya says he was vaccinated and STILL got sick with COVID.
With the way that De La Hoya was mask-less in his workouts and around many people, I can’t say it’s a huge shock that he got ill. The variant former of COVID-19 is a threat even for people that are vaccinated.
Wanted you to hear directly from me that despite being fully vaccinated, I have contracted Covid and am not going to be able to fight next weekend. Preparing for this comeback has been everything to me over the last months, & I want to thank everyone for their tremendous support. pic.twitter.com/0wKEnr5Jzv
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) September 3, 2021
De La Hoya, 48, had lost a lot of weight during training camp and looked years younger than the chunky ex-world champion he’d been before.
Oscar hasn’t fought since 2008, and he had a lot of work to get himself in good enough shape to take on Belfort in what was supposed to be an eight round headliner on Triller PPV at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
58-year-old former two-division world champion Evander Holyfield is reportedly stepping in to replace De La Hoya to face Belfort on September 11th. We’ll see if that happens, though.
Holyfield is up there in age and hasn’t fought in ten years since his tenth round knockout win over Brian Nielsen on May 7th, 2011. Whether Holyfield can take the fight with Belfort will be decided by the California Commission.
Ten years out of the ring is a long time, and Holyfield is about to turn 59, which is pretty ripe for a boxer. If the California Commission chooses to reject Holyfield as a suitable replacement opponent for Belfort, there’s talk that the September 11th event will be moved to a different state that WILL agree to allow the fight to take place.
Many boxing fans were anxious to see De La Hoya fight again, and they were willing to give him a pass that he selected an MMA, who many fans have never heard of or seen before.
MMA fans know who Belfort is, but not boxing fans that don’t watch that sport. He looks pretty old, though, so maybe he won’t be a problem for Holyfield if he does take the fight.
De La Hoya sounded pretty sick, and he didn’t mention whether he’ll want to reschedule with Belfort, find another opponent or give up on the idea of a comeback.
If De La Hoya does choose to continue, he’s mentioned wanting to fight former UFC champion Anderson Silva, 48, and then calling out Floyd Mayweather Jr.
While the Silva fight would be possible for De La Hoya, Mayweather Jr. isn’t likely to take the fight. Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, recently said that Floyd isn’t interested in fighting De La Hoya.