Will Oscars Mexican ID Be Revoked If He Ducks Margarito?

Things are just not working out the way Oscar De La Hoya planned. First Floyd Mayweather ducks out of their scheduled big-money, low-risk rematch for September, and now Miguel Cotto loses to Tony Margarito, spoiling a potential De La Hoya/Cotto swan song for Oscar in December. Margarito beating Cotto is turning out to be even more disastrous to Oscar’s retirement plans that Money May’s abrupt departure from the scene, because it sets De La Hoya up to look very, VERY cowardly if he fights anyone but Margarito, particularly to the Mexican community, with whom Oscar has had a long, tortured relationship. Oscar, of course, does not under any circumstances want to fight Tony Margarito in his farewell bout, and this is going to lead to the choruses of “chicken” that have dogged The Golden Boy for his entire career, especially if he opts instead to fight Manny Pacquiao, the mighty but miniscule Filipino who as recently as this past spring was competing four weight classes below De La Hoya. Now, to be fair, I think the idea that Oscar is afraid to fight Margarito is absurd. Oscar has taken on his share of monsters over the years, and honestly I think there’s a good chance that he would beat Margarito. He’s always been an excellent boxer, maybe not quite as explosive or powerful as Cotto these days, but as we all witnessed last Saturday, explosive power is kind of irrelevant against Tony M., because you could shoot that man in the face with a bazooka and elicit little more than a bloody smile. And one thing that Oscar has in spades over Cotto is ring-smarts. The guy has been around the block, played the matador over and over again in very dangerous situations. Something tells me that he’d know just how to handle a bull of Margarito’s caliber. Whether he could pull it off physically is another matter, and of course at this stage of his career I’m sure he’d rather get in there with someone less potentially dangerous, but I seriously doubt that raw fear is motivating him against the prospect of the fight. Pride is the motivating factor here. This December bout is supposed to be Oscar’s farewell to the sport, and not surprisingly he wants it to be a celebration of all things Golden Boy. But if he fights Margarito in Vegas (and it’s hard to imagine the fight taking place anywhere else), there will be a huge Mexican contingent on hand actively rooting against him. For Oscar, it will be the Chavez days all over again, and the last thing he wants is to revisit that dark era of his career, the era where he was the Fakeass Chicano Pretty Boy taking on the True Mexican Warrior Hero. Especially when you consider that the only way that he could beat that True Mexican Warrior would be to ride the bicycle for twelve rounds and win it on points. Because make no mistake about it – Oscar stands toe-to-toe with Margo and he gets the bejabbers beaten out of him. What De La Hoya no doubt is hoping is that ultimately Mexicans will get behind him in a bout against Pacquiao, who has made a career thus far of being “The Mexican Assassin.” But with Margarito’s heroic victory last week making Tony an instant icon with the Mexican faithful, Oscar getting away with ducking Margs for a much, MUCH smaller man is not going to warm the cockles of any Mexican fight fan’s heart. In fact, I could imagine Mexican diehards siding with Pacquiao over Oscar – Pac Man has infinitely more street cred with them right now than The Golden Boy. I’m telling you, De La Hoya is really screwed on this one, and I can’t help but imagine that somewhere, in his mansion made of diamonds, Little Money May is sporting a gazillion-dollar smile.