Oscar De La Hoya

Don’t Count On De La Hoya Fighting Margarito

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delahoya54747446.jpgBy Manuel Perez: Now that newly crowned WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito (37-5, 27 KOs) has finished off Miguel Cotto and put him to rest, the natural next opponent for Margarito would seem to be boxing great Oscar De la Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs), who previously hinted at wanting to fight Cotto if he were to defeat Margarito. However, Margarito upset those plans by erasing Cotto, thus taking away what would have been a huge big money fight for De la Hoya, who plans on bowing out of boxing on December 6th. Alas, De la Hoya hasn’t so far shown any interest in fighting Margarito in December, which somehow I find not too surprising. With the way Margarito decimated Cotto, almost taking head of in the process of taking him apart bit by bit on Saturday night, leaving him a bloody mess.

I’m doubt De la Hoya would want to risk having the same fate happening to him in his last fight of his career. Margarito would probably overwhelm De La Hoya in the same manner as he did to Cotto, walking him down, throwing nonstop punches until a badly beaten and bloody De La Hoya quits in a similar fashion as Cotto. I do think that De La Hoya would do well for a few rounds, but by the 5th or 6th, Margarito would get to him with his big body shots and likely drop him to the canvas in the same way that Bernard Hopkins did to De La Hoya in his 9th round TKO of his in September 2004.

De La Hoya vs. Pacquiao in December?

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delahoya4574634.jpgBy Manuel Perez: For most people, the thought of Manny Pacquiao, currently the WBC lightweight champion, every fighting a fighter as big as welterweight Oscar De La Hoya, seemed laughable due to the huge size differences between the two fighters. Indeed, most boxing fans that dared mention such a match up in boxing forums on the internet were quickly ridiculed and laughed off the board.

However, things may have changed with De La Hoya, 35, planning on fighting for the final time in his career in December, and with Pacquiao’s recent move up in weight to defeat WBC lightweight champion David Diaz in a 9th round TKO in June. Now, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly in meetings with Golden Boy Chief executive officer Richard Schaefer about a December 6th bout between Pacquiao and De La Hoya. For Pacquiao, 29, this fight would work out perfectly, because he’s got an open date around that time with no scheduled opponents. He had been hoping to fight Ricky Hatton at that time, but Hatton isn’t interested instead in fighting IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi in November.

De La Hoya To Fight For The Final Time In December

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delahoya55441.jpgBy Eric Thomas: Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) will reportedly be fighting for the final time on December 6th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas against a still unnamed opponent. De La Hoya, who lost his original Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a bout that was supposed to have taken place on September 20th, is looking at a variety of opponents from Miguel Cotto, Felix Trinidad, Sergio Mora or Manny Pacquiao. Another potential opponent and the one that De La Hoya had the most interest in – Ricky Hatton – rejected an offer to fight De La Hoya, saying that he would prefer to go ahead and fight IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi instead.

Of the bunch that De La Hoya is currently interested in fighting, I highly doubt that Cotto or Trinidad will be the final choice for De La Hoya. Trinidad, 35, though a great fighter earlier in his career, he’s gone downhill considerably in the past seven years and has lost over half of his fights during that seven year span. Knowing that De La Hoya likes to mostly take on fighters that are still a challenge for him, he’ll probably not like the idea of fighting him at this stage in his career even though Trinidad previously defeated De La Hoya by a 12-round majority decision in September 1999.

De La Hoya: “One more [Fight] and that’s it”

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dela-hoya35353.jpgBy Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) perhaps still smarting from the rejection by light welterweight Ricky Hatton, who declined to step in and fight De La Hoya in September, as well as Floyd Mayweather Jr’s recent retirement, De La Hoya told Reuters on Wednesday, “One more and that’s it. This is my final year. I’m doing one fight and hanging up the gloves.” De La Hoya also had comments directed for Mayweather, saying “The time is running out. If Mayweather is playing these little games thinking he can catch me at an older age next year, it’s not going to happen. It has to happen by this year.”

It seems that De La Hoya hasn’t given up on his number one goal, a second fight with Mayweather, which would obviously bring De La Hoya another huge payday before he hangs up the boxing gloves. The two had been scheduled to fight on September 20th, but Mayweather blew those plans last week, when he suddenly announced his retirement from boxing, and said that it would be “permanent.” De La Hoya, whom had been counting on that fight a great deal, was left with no dancing partner for his September open date.

Who Will Be De La Hoya’s Next Lucky Opponent?

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de-la-hoya4364643.jpgBy William MacKay: For a fighter as popular and as wealthy as Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs), he sure has had a bad week. Not only did he lose out on a huge potential multi-million dollar payday when his September 20th opponent Floyd Mayweather Jr. abruptly retired from boxing, but he then had his second choice Ricky Hatton flatly refuse to fight him. Most people would naturally assume that Hatton either much have rocks in his head or took too many head shots in his recent struggle against Juan Lazcano. After all, what fighter would turn down a monstrous payday against De La Hoya in order to fight IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, a fighter that only boxing insiders have any clue to who he is.

Nevertheless, it’s not over yet, and De La Hoya may end up persuading Hatton to take the fight after all. De La Hoya isn’t one of the best businessmen in boxing for nothing, and once he gets talking to Hatton, I’d be willing to bet he’ll get him to come around. Short of that, De La Hoya has a lot of other choices, though many of them are far less appealing for obvious reasons than Hatton. The first names that jump out at me are welterweight champions Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, both of which are fighting it out on July 26th for Cotto’s WBA welterweight title. However, one of them will be eliminated by virtue of the loss (unless it’s a draw, of course), but even the winner has to do it in an impressive manner or risk losing a shot in the De La Hoya sweepstakes.

Hatton Not Interested in De La Hoya Bout In September

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hatton45456434.jpgBy Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) is reportedly not interested in a bout with 6-weight world champion Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) in September, so says Hatton’s father, Ray, according to the BBC. Apparently, Hatton feels that the bout is too soon after Ricky Hatton’s recent defeat of Juan Lazcano, a fight that took place two weeks ago and turned out to be a much tougher fight than Hatton has probably expected it would be.

Hatton has a scheduled bout with IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi in November, and that’s the fight that Hatton has his mind on. At the same time, Hatton’s father is holding out hope that Floyd Mayweather Jr. may come out of retirement, which is the fight that Ricky really wants bad because of his prior 10-round TKO loss to Mayweather in December 2007. Hatton badly wants to avenge the defeat, according to sources, because he felt that he didn’t fight at his optimal level in that bout.

Where Does Mayweather’s Retirement Leave De La Hoya & Hatton?

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de-la-hoya33533.jpgBy Aaron Klein: For Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs), today’s sudden retirement announcement by Floyd Mayweather Jr. couldn’t have come about at a worse time for him. De La Hoya, 35, had been a sheer three months away from his rematch with Mayweather in September, and it would have made a nice payday for the fading De La Hoya, who stated that he only wants to fight two more times. Light welterweight Ricky Hatton, 29, also had hoping to line up a rematch with Mayweather at some time in 2009, and had unfinished business with him due to Mayweather destroying in a 10th round blowout in December 2007.

Though Hatton has said that he was less concerned with money than getting revenge for the earlier defeat, the money that he would have likely made from a second bout with Mayweather had to be a substantial factor in his desire for a rematch. Now, however, both De La Hoya and Hatton find themselves out in the cold, without a big name fighter with the marquee value that Mayweather possess. That’s got to hurt, especially for De La Hoya, since he’s the one that had a fight set up for September.

Wright Wants De La Hoya & Pavlik: Is He Dreaming?

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wright646462.jpgBy Scott Gilfoid: In perhaps a sign of wishful thinking on his part, former IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO light middleweight champion Ronald “Winky” Wright (51-4-1, 25 KOs) mentioned on Wednesday night’s ESPN boxing telecast that he’s interested in fighting only big fights, and has both Oscar De La Hoya and WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik. The main problem with Wright’s dream fights, however, is that at age 36, he isn’t a media draw like De La Hoya or Pavlik, and isn’t someone that they’d likely be interested in fighting at this point.

Wright hasn’t helped himself, for that matter, by staying away from boxing for the past year after his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Bernard Hopkins in July 2007. It was a close fight, but like many of Wright’s fights, it wasn’t particularly exciting to watch. Even before that, ignoring his win over a come backing Ike Quartey, Wright had fought to a 12-round draw with Jermain Taylor in June 2006. Many people felt that Wright was extremely fortunate to get a draw out of that fight, for he appeared to have lost by the fight by many accounts by at least a round or two. However, all of that could possibly be ignored by fighters like Pavlik and De La Hoya, if Wright had a history of being in exciting fights.

Did Hatton Blow His Chance At Fighting De La Hoya?

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hatton4353522.jpgBy Jim Dower: In winning his fight on May 24th against the tough Mexican Juan Lazcano, former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) may have destroyed his shot at landing what would likely be a huge mega bout against Oscar De La Hoya in the future. Though Hatton, 29, did end up getting the win over Lazcano, it was a difficult bout for Ricky and one where he appeared to get help from the referee in the 10th round to avoid being knocked out by the Mexican fighter.

This obviously wasn’t missed by De La Hoya, who came out recently and said that he’s not interested in fighting Hatton, that their weight differences between them would be too much for the fight to be able to come off. De La Hoya said that he could probably make the 140 lb weight limit if he had to, but that he would prefer not to have do that. At the same time, De La Hoya had some advice for Hatton, telling him to not to move up to 147 – the welterweight division again – because the extra weight would make a big difference in his performance. Though De La Hoya was trying his hardest to be kind to Hatton, not to ruffle his feathers any, it still came across that Hatton was being rejected as an unsuitable opponent. De La Hoya was previously very interested in fighting Hatton before his recent fight with Lazcano.

Is De La Hoya Improved Enough To Beat Mayweather?

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delahoya455331.jpgBy Manuel Perez: While watching former welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) giving Steve Forbes a boxing lesson en route to winning an easy 12-round unanimous decision on May 3rd, I couldn’t help but notice how improved De La Hoya was since seeing him last fight a year earlier against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May 2007. De La Hoya, 36, seemed to have regained his speed, foot movement and ring intelligence against Forbes in a fight that turned out to be one-sided. Going into the fight, many people had been saying that Oscar was washed up, that he was over the hill and should consider retiring from boxing rather than prolonging his career and just wasting people’s money.

However, De La Hoya looked more than good, he looked superb against Forbes, a fighter with a style almost identical to Mayweather’s. It was clear, at least to me, that having Floyd Mayweather Sr. working in his corner for the training for his bout with Forbes, which was what was the missing ingredient that kept De La Hoya from beating Mayweather Jr. in their previous bout a year ago. It seems that Floyd Sr. showed De La Hoya how to solve Forbes’ style, and in doing so gave De La Hoya the tool for which to beat Mayweather Jr. Namely, by using fast combinations and sticking to his jab, De La Hoya has the missing factor that he needed in order to beat Mayweather Jr.