By Tom Donelson
Are we seeing the end of Oscar De La Hoya's career? What I will write is speculation but I have the feeling that we have seen the last of De La Hoya in the ring. Lately when I see De La Hoya, he looks very comfortable in a suit, too comfortable for a fighter. And with the recent announcement that he will not fight in 2005, this makes me wonder even more.
Consider a few facts. Oscar De La Hoya no longer needs to fight, at least from a financial point of view. He is wealthy and now he is even a player in the boxing game as a promoter. Oscar has a future in boxing and beyond, so why stay in the ring and get your brain scrambled?
In the last few years of his career, De La Hoya was about fighting the best and working on his legacy. His fight against Hopkins was just one more step to ensure a place on boxing's pedestal. As it stands, De La Hoya was one of this generation's best fighters but he was not the best. I've covered this point before with writers such as Frank Lotierzo. The reality is that De La Hoya’s place in boxing history is secure and there is very little he can do to enhance or detract from it. When he lost to Hopkins, he merely failed to beat the one of boxing’s great middleweights but he still managed to capture pieces of championships at six different weight classes. His resume includes fighting and even beating some of the best fighters of his generation. Only Hopkins truly stopped him and before that, only Mosley truly beat him decisively in their first encounter.
What has always drove boxing historians mad about De La Hoya was that in many of his classic match-ups, he rarely won or lost decisively. Yet his record does speak well of his place in boxing history and De La Hoya only concentrated on the big events over the past few years. This is not a fighter who would be satisfied with fighting on a Friday Night ESPN2 card. For De La Hoya, a fight is not worth pursuing unless millions of dollars are involved.
The problem for De La Hoya, there are very few fights left out there for him that would be worth millions. While one boxing reporter has reported that he is in talks with Don King for a Felix Trinidad rematch up, such a match will only occur in spring 2006 at the earliest. And this fight has many hurdles including Trinidad's previous statements that he planned to stay at middleweight and not move down in weight. De La Hoya has already made it clear that he will never fight at 160 pounds and even considered moving down all the way to welterweight. So unless De La Hoya can induce Trinidad to move down to at least 154 pounds, then this fight will never happen.
De La Hoya is interested in gaining revenge over Trinidad, but Trinidad is now retired and millions of dollars may not get him to come out of retirement. Another target could be Winky Wright but again, will Wright move back down to 154 pounds when his real goal is to win the middleweight title from the winner of the upcoming Hopkins-Taylor showdown?
And which fighter in the welterweight division would provide De La Hoya a big payday or one that is worth training and dropping down to a weight division that last saw Oscar in 2000? From a financial point of view, De La Hoya has few options and the only reasons to fight is to either regain the welterweight title or avenge his Trinidad loss. Beyond that, there is very little reason for De La Hoya to ever step in the ring as a fighter.
The bottom line is that Oscar appears to have no real desire to return to the ring. I would be very surprised to see Oscar in the ring as a fighter against any opponent. De La Hoya's best days are behind him, he should sit on his millions and enjoy stepping in the ring as a promoter, but not as a fighter.
