Oscar De La Hoya

By Aaron Klein: Last Saturday night the six-time world champion Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) showed that he still has what it takes to be a world champion in the process of pounding out a remarkably easy 12-round unanimous decision over former super featherweight champion Steve Forbes at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California. The win, although minor in some people’s eyes, was extraordinary in a sense that we got to see De La Hoya in the best shape he’d been in years, which allowed him to once again show his excellent ring skills without fading late in the fight like he’d done in many of his fights in the past eight years.

Beyond that, he showed that he wasn’t a washed up fighter, a tag that has been placed on him by many boxing pundits who have called out for him to retire from the sport. In so far as what I saw of him on Saturday night, I don’t think De La Hoya should retire at all, at least not yet. He looks like has a minimum of three years left at the top of the sport and he’d be crazy to get out of it now, just to appease a few negative sports writers. I can certainly understand where they’re coming from, though, for De La Hoya has looked bad in losses to Bernard Hopkins and his draw with Felix Sturm. Other than that, however, De La Hoya has nothing to be ashamed of for his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr., whom he lost by a split decision.

By Eric Thomas: In an excruciatingly dull fight, Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) won a boring one-sided 12-round unanimous decision over the much smaller Steve Forbes (33-6, 9 KOs) tonight at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, Nevada. The fight was wholly without any drama, as Forbes was, as expected, far too small and weak to present much of fight to the taller De La Hoya. The only thing unexpected about the fight was the fact that De La Hoya failed to tire out like he usually does in the second half of his fights. But, then again, Forbes, 31, did little in terms of applying any kind of pressure on De La Hoya, in a since letting De La Hoya fight at a snail’s pace which allowed him to fight without fading as is his custom.

In the final two rounds when it was obvious that Forbes, who was hopelessly behind at this time in the fight, wouldn’t be able to stop De La Hoya, it seemed to have the effect of making Oscar kind of cocky as he looked as if he were fighting a champion rather than an unranked smaller fighter who was fighting out of his weight class. For me, I had to stifle a laugh because it was rather pathetic, as if a joke was being played on people and only a few of them were in on it.

By Robert Cavender: Through no surprise, this Saturday’s bout, called “The Homecoming” between Oscar De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) and former super featherweight champion Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs) is failing to ignite much interest by fans judging by the lack of discussion about in on the various internet boxing websites in the past week. Here we are one day away, and one would expect there to be fairly substantial amount of discussion about the fight given the short period of time before the bout, yet almost next to zero fans seem to have much more than a passing interest in the fight.

It could be that the fans never were interested in the fight to begin with, seeing it as nothing more than an exhibition bout between a faded star, De La Hoya, and one that never has quite made his mark as of yet. It hasn’t helped De La Hoya’s case that he’s lost many of his recent fights, three out of give to be exact, and the ones that he has won haven’t been over top fighters. Yet with all that, people are expected to be interested in seeing De La Hoya fight, if nothing more than because of the fighter he once was.

By Manuel Perez: With his prime well behind him in the rear view mirror, Oscar De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) continues on with his once excellent career when he fights Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs) on Saturday night. One wonders why after making tens of millions of dollars over his career, involving De La Hoya winning a number of championships, he would want to continue fighting when he’s lost three out of his last five bouts and looked bad in a fourth bout which he should have lost as well. I suppose the reasons are simple: Yet even more money, especially in his upcoming bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September, which is more money than he can quickly make in his promoting business.

Aside from that, I can’t see any real reason to stick around, considering that he’s now losing virtually all his fights against top opponents. It’s like having an old race car with a shot engine and then continuously putting into a race against new cars, and coming in last each time out. Or, like an old race horse that can no longer get around the track and is beaten badly every time out.

By Chris Stein: Oscar De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) hopes to get by his tune-up opponent former IBF super featherweight champion Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs) this Saturday night at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California. De La Hoya, 36, hasn’t seen action in a year, since losing a 12-round split decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May 2007. Rather than take a risky tune-up against a junior middleweight or a top 10 welterweight, De La Hoya has opted to dip down into the junior welterweight division to fight the diminutive Forbes, 31, a move perhaps to ensure that the badly fading De La Hoya somehow comes out on top.

However, even with a three inch height advantage and a five in reach advantage over Forbes, I still expect De La Hoya to lose the fight, although he’ll still get the decision in the end regardless of how bad he’s beaten. Just like in his battle with Felix Sturm in June 2004, in which De La Hoya was handed a 12-round unanimous decision, in spite of the fact that he appeared to lose the fight handily, by at least six rounds on many of the ringside observers. In short, Sturm would have likely needed a knockout to get the victory over De La Hoya that night, for there was a lot riding on the outcome – an upcoming mega fight with Bernard Hopkins.

Superstar Oscar De La Hoya, aka “The Golden Boy,” fights in front of a hometown crowd for the first time since 2000 when WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING: OSCAR DE LA HOYA VS. STEVE FORBES is seen live SATURDAY, MAY 3 (10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT) from The Home Depot Center in Carson, Cal., exclusively on HBO.. The HBO Sports team of Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward will be ringside for the fight, which will be available in HDTV, closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired and presented in Spanish on HBO Latino.

Oscar De La Hoya: Thank you, thank you very much Richard. Well I’ll tell you a bit about my training. Just before I start about my training I just want to say that I don’t know what I would have done without Mayweather Sr. back on my team. I really thought it was over. I really thought I was, you know, getting close to hanging up the gloves but Mayweather Sr. just brings out the best in me and, you know, this training camp has been no exception.