Hopes For De La Hoya To Fight Beyond The Pacquiao Bout

By James Blears

While Oscar De La Hoya is set to announce his December 6 bout with Manny Pacquiao, scheduled to be Oscar's final career fight - his right hand men, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer and VP/matchmaker Eric Gomez, hope that Oscar has more mega-fights left in him, which may or may not indicate some future action in 2009 if the right fights come along.

Oscar's current focus will be for revenge on Pacquiao for almost turning the ranks of Mexican boxing into rubble with his wins over Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar Larios, David Diaz and several others. Golden Boy Promotions’s CEO Richard Schafer is looking a tad further ahead, to the hallowed and greener turf of North London… and Ricky Hatton.

"A matchup between the two most popular fighters on the planet would be unbelievable, and when I think about places, of course Wembley Stadium comes to mind…or in Mexico the famous Azteca Stadium. These are the dream matchups which might never happen, but I think people are allowed to dream,” Schaefer said. 

Gomez, hankers after neat conclusions, and for this he favors a close encounter of the second kind.

“I would love it if [Floyd] Mayweather would come out of retirement and Oscar faced him again, because if you see their fight, everyone remembers the result. But it was a close fight which could have gone either way. Mayweather won a split decision," Gomez said." I think Oscar has the tools to beat him. I think he went in there with the wrong strategy. Had he used his jab a little bit more, he would have beat him."

"He was controlling the fight easily for the first six/seven rounds. But he just went away from his game plan. I think that it’s a fight in which Oscar can redeem himself in. Mayweather is considered pound for pound one of the best ever. I feel that Oscar can beat him."