By Keith Idec

Oscar De La Hoya further fueled speculation about a comeback Sunday on Twitter.

The former six-division champion tweeted: I’m really confident I can do some damage to any 54 pounder in the world, except “Saul Canelo Alvarez.”

That tweet was issued a week after Richard Schaefer, chief executive officer for De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, said the company was planning something “huge” for February at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Schaefer did not suggest then that the “huge” event has anything to do with De La Hoya, but the 39-year-old promoter acknowledged last month that he seriously contemplated coming back to headline Golden Boy’s inaugural card at Barclays Center on Oct. 20.

The 1992 Olympic gold medalist said then that he gave serious consideration to a rematch against Germany’s Felix Sturm. De La Hoya out-pointed Sturm in an extremely competitive middleweight title fight many boxing observers contend De La Hoya lost three months before his ninth-round knockout loss to Bernard Hopkins in September 2004.

The East Los Angeles native last fought in December 2008, when Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao pummeled him into submission over eight stunningly one-sided rounds in Las Vegas.

De La Hoya, who officially retired in April 2009, said after that lopsided loss that getting down to the welterweight limit of 147 pounds for the first time in 7½ years for the Pacquiao showdown impacted his poor performance. He weighed in at 145 pounds for the Pacquiao fight, his lowest weight since he tipped the scales at 140 for a WBC super lightweight title defense against Miguel Angel Gonzalez in January 1997.

He fought almost exclusively at 154 pounds in the 6½ years prior to opposing Pacquiao, hence his tweet about competing at that weight.

De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs), who remains in top physical condition, has repeatedly said since retiring that he no longer has the will to train and spar the way he would need to do to continue competing at boxing’s elite level.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.