Oscar De La Hoya was surprised to read and hear talk over the weekend of a Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor boxing rematch.
Mayweather completely outclassed McGregor in their boxing match and stopped the UFC superstar in the 10th round of their August 2017 bout in Las Vegas. The retired Mayweather and McGregor sparked talk of a second bout between them after McGregor destroyed Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in just 40 seconds Saturday night in the main event at UFC 246 in Las Vegas.
Mayweather released a poster promoting Mayweather-McGregor 2 in 2020 on Instagram following McGregor’s first-round, technical-knockout victory over Cerrone at T-Mobile Arena, the same venue where Mayweather beat McGregor.
De La Hoya has been an outspoken critic of MMA fighters facing boxers in boxing matches. He offered his thoughts on a potential Mayweather-McGregor rematch during an interview with BoxingScene.com on Monday while promoting Ryan Garcia’s upcoming fight against Francisco Fonseca on February 14 in Anaheim, California.
“Look, the sport’s different,” said De La Hoya, whose close loss to Mayweather in May 2007 drew 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, then a record. “Boxing is boxing and MMA is MMA. I think both should just stay separate and kind of stay in your own lane, you know? Because if, for instance, if McGregor fights Mayweather again, it’s gonna be the same story. Nothing changes, you know? It’s not that McGregor [isn’t] good at what he does [in UFC]. He’s great. But Mayweather’s great at what he does as well. So, I think everybody should just stay in their own lane.”
Las Vegas’ Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs), who’ll turn 43 next month, has hinted that he’ll end another retirement to box again sometime this year. Speculation persists that the undefeated five-division champion will meet Manny Pacquiao again in what still would be a very profitable pay-per-view event.
Mayweather beat the Philippines’ Pacquiao by unanimous decision in a 12-round welterweight title fight nearly five years ago. That long-awaited showdown drew intense criticism because it lacked action, but it remains the most lucrative event in boxing history, as it generated more than $600 million in overall revenue.
Mayweather-McGregor, meanwhile, is second only to Mayweather-Pacquiao in terms of buys in pay-per-view history. Mayweather-McGregor produced roughly 4.3 million buys, approximately 300,000 fewer than Mayweather-Pacquiao.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.