Smith: Mayweather Instigated The De La Hoya Letter
By Carlos Boogs
ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith, who is close friends with Floyd Mayweather Jr., says the retired pound-for-pound king instigated the scathing open letter from Oscar De La Hoya, which appears in the December issue of Playboy Magazine.
Smith felt Mayweather made a few comments that were "below the belt" by taking shots at De La Hoya's past struggles with substance abuse and the controversy where the former six division champion was photographed dressing in drag.
Smith even went as far as to agree with De La Hoya's opinion that many of Mayweather's fights "were boring."
But Smith backtracks a bit and says the fights were boring because Mayweather is a defensive genius and the opponents were unable to do their jobs by getting to him with punches.
To retaliate against the comments, De La Hoya blasted back with an open letter that highly criticized Mayweather's career, his fighting style and his approached to the sport.
"I thought it was below the belt, what Floyd did previously to instigate this response from Oscar De La Hoya, when [Mayweather] brought up the drag stuff and the drug use or whatever. It's like you didn't have to go there, just because he put Ronda Rousey on the cover of Ring Magazine, which Golden Boy Promotions owns," Smith said when discussing the back and forth assaults by both fighter.
"De La Hoya and I go back and forth but its all in fun. I got nothing but profound respect for that man. What he said about Floyd being boring is undeniable. A lot of the fights, what we saw were relatively boring. Let's not stop there. Could his fights have been boring because Floyd is a defensive magician?"
