Oscar De La Hoya: Boxing Is Better Without Floyd Mayweather
After officially retiring the idea that he might come out of retirement, Oscar De La Hoya is seriously considering what the future of boxing will look like.
And it seems he thinks it will be better without Floyd Mayweather, Jr. As the world's first Hispanic boxing promoter to go national with his Golden Boy Promotions, De La Hoya's expert opinion definitely weighs heavy for fans.
"As a promoter," he said, the much-hyped Mayweather/[Manny] Pacquiao fight was a "dud. ... We had 2.5 million new homes that had never seen a fight before and they saw ... a hugging display ... It wasn't Sugar Ray Leonard going up against [Roberto] Durán or [Tommy] Hearns.
Even Mayweather's retirement fight (against Andre Berto) wasn't impressive, he said. "For Floyd, it's all about the business and the money and obviously this last fight tanked. Maybe he could've gone out with somebody else other than Berto [since] he was coming off a few fights where he got knocked out..."
De La Hoya concluded, "Boxing is gonna be better [without Mayweather]. The fans want to see knockouts, the fans want to see great action, you want to be able to entertain the fans and have them on the edge of their seats screaming and yelling."
He continued, "Floyd had his run, and don't get me wrong, I respect Floyd for what he's done, and he's undefeated, and he's a great talent, I mean by far he's one of the best defensive boxers that we've seen in recent times, but ... I want people to talk about boxing [not defense]."
De La Hoya's business partner, Bernard Hopkins comes to mind. He said at 50, Hopkins is still ready to get into the ring. He wants to fight the "toughest supermiddle weight that's out there because that's the only weight class that he didn't conquer," de la Hoya explained. He added, "[Bernard] could still do it because he takes care of himself. This guy eats, breathes, sleeps boxing."
Whereas Mayweather admitted, "I'm not passionate, of course. I'm being honest ... if I could make $60, 70 million in 36 minutes, I'm going to go out there and do it."
The next Golden Boy Promotions fight is Saturday, October 17 at Madison Square Garden. The sold out showing is battle between Triple G and David Lemieux. "That's a real fight," de la Hoya said. "You're not going to see a dance off."
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(Photo from left: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images, Aaron Davidson/Getty Images)
