By Mark Vester
It was reported yesterday by MaxBoxing/BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno, that Oscar De La Hoya would likely scrap a potential fight plan for September due to the unforeseen retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Prior to Mayweather's announcement, the plan for De La Hoya was to fight three times and then retire before the start of 2009. He planned to fight Mayweather in September and then a career-ending bout in December. Reeno was advised that De La Hoya would instead push his fight back, maybe until November and only fight one more time before retirement.
During a recent interview with Reuters, De La Hoya confirmed the information given to Reeno when he told the news agency that his plans have changed and he was only going to fight one more time in 2008 before calling it career. He also said the scheduled date for September was likely out. He says Mayweather blew his chance and will not face him next year or any year after 2008.
One more and that's it. ... This is my final year. I'm doing one fight and hanging up the gloves," De La Hoya said. "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," said De La Hoya.
De La Hoya is now looking at Manny Pacquiao, who is considerably smaller and moving up to 135 in a few weeks. De La Hoya fought Steve Forbes last month at 150-pounds. De La Hoya's trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr, recently told BoxingScene that a fight between De La Hoya and Pacquiao is ridiculous because of the size difference. He will also consider fighting the winner of the July 26 bout between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.
"Manny Pacquiao is calling me out. He can jump up two or three weight classes and challenge me," De La Hoya said. "There's and interesting fight happening, Miguel Cotto against (Antonio) Margarito (on July 26), that should be interesting to watch. Maybe I can get the winner. We'll see."
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