Former world champion Oscar de la Hoya feels that if he had fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao when he was younger, the result of the bouts would have been different.
In an interview with ******.com, De La Hoya said that neither Pacquiao nor Mayweather would have been able to beat him in his prime.
De La Hoya lost to Mayweather via split decision in 2007, and to Pacquiao via technical knockout in 2008. He retired after fighting Pacquiao.
"Unfortunately, I did fight Floyd Jr. and Pacquiao out of my prime. I can tell you that I would say that, no, they wouldn’t have beaten me in my prime," De La Hoya said.
De La Hoya said that he was a "dead man walking" on the night he fought Pacquiao.
"When I fought Pacquiao, I was drained," he admitted. "You know what, though? It's my fault because I wanted to fight at 147 (pounds). I had to drop a lot of weight within a month before the fight."
"You have to give Pacquiao his credit. He was a young lion that beat me that night, and he's a talented fighter," De La Hoya added.
The "Golden Boy" also said that he could have won against Mayweather had he stuck to his fight plan.
"If I had kept throwing that jab at Mayweather, I would have won the fight. Hands down," he said. "But I was kind of a robot, getting rusty as every round went by, and the screws began to pop out of my sockets."
De La Hoya recently admitted in a televised interview that he struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, and had even considered taking his own life.
"I feel wonderful, I feel blessed, and I feel great that lot of the people that really love me are sticking behind me," he said.
From the ring website.
I think he would have too
He gave Mayweather all he could handle when he was well past his prime and i feel with his size and ability if he was prime ie fast as fucc and packing a HAMMER of a left hook/uppercut AND actually had the ability to pull the trigger and let some shots fly he'd KO Manny
Prime Oscar UD's PBF
Prime Oscar KO's Pac
Im talking about these fights at 147lbs
oscar would have been dominated by floyd in oscar's prime---if there 1 thing oscar can do, it's lose to elite fighters, prime or not---he struggled with sweet pea and quartey and gatti even stunned him in the 1st round of their fight---oscar is not fooling me--i
m not stupid--floyd would have crushed him in his prime---oscar lost to floyd, 9 rounds to 3----kellerman said it best--oscar was surviving against floyd in their fight---nothing more, nothing less---floyd was chasing oscar his whole career---if oscar is really serious about beating floyd and manny in his prime--he would have fought them in his prime--well, floyd anyway--oscar really never wanted any part of floyd until after the baldomir fight, because he thought floyd lost a step---he was schooled by floyd easily---oscar, keep your thoughts and opinions to yourself kid-lol--you're not as good as you think, nor have you ever been---fl0yd beats oscar at anytime in his career--manny would have lost to oscar though imo, only because of his style---i'm not fooled by oscar's little rambunctious claims--oscar has always fought too stiff to beat floyd at anytime in his career--oscar, save your energy---give less interviews--he picked hatton and jmm and now ortiz to beat floyd--floyd is the most skilled fighter in history--oscar is just being stupid folks--
remember this always---
Yeah that makes sense, a part-time past it Oscar just drops a SD to Floyd but a prime Oscar gets dominated by Floyd.
So you are saying (Past it/Part-time Oscar) > (Prime Oscar)
Hopefully you can see the flaw in you logic.
Prime Oscar beats Mayweather
oscar would have been dominated by floyd in oscar's prime---if there 1 thing oscar can do, it's lose to elite fighters, prime or not---he struggled with sweet pea and quartey and gatti even stunned him in the 1st round of their fight---oscar is not fooling me--i
m not stupid--floyd would have crushed him in his prime---oscar lost to floyd, 9 rounds to 3----kellerman said it best--oscar was surviving against floyd in their fight---nothing more, nothing less---floyd was chasing oscar his whole career---if oscar is really serious about beating floyd and manny in his prime--he would have fought them in his prime--well, floyd anyway--oscar really never wanted any part of floyd until after the baldomir fight, because he thought floyd lost a step---he was schooled by floyd easily---oscar, keep your thoughts and opinions to yourself kid-lol--you're not as good as you think, nor have you ever been---fl0yd beats oscar at anytime in his career--manny would have lost to oscar though imo, only because of his style---i'm not fooled by oscar's little rambunctious claims--oscar has always fought too stiff to beat floyd at anytime in his career--oscar, save your energy---give less interviews--he picked hatton and jmm and now ortiz to beat floyd--floyd is the most skilled fighter in history--oscar is just being stupid folks--
remember this always---
DLH still would have lost. Oscar lost every major challenge he's ever had with the exception of his match with Quartey, and that was a gift as well.
Outside of the Quartey bout, DLH has lost EVERY major match he's ever had at and above 147. Before then he fought an aray of old fighters and hyped opponents.
He lost to Sweet Pea as well but that was just another Golden gift that DLH got.
He would have been befuddled by Floyd. Especially if he tried to bully him at the WW limit of 147lbs.
if we talk about gifts, mayweather has a few gifts wins and so does pacquiao
floyd is to selective and cautious at welter weight. p4p floyd is great but at welter i have yet to see a fight that would make me believe he would beat a prime oscar, shane, or vernon forrest.
not saying oscar would ko him or completely dominate him but oscar would out work to earn a dec.
short of a prime tommy hearns nobody knocking a prime floyd out his defensive is too good
pac will always be a tough fight for oscar simply because pac is left handed and you need a good right hand to fight a south paw and a prime oscar does not have a good right hand
Incorrect. Oscar always comes up short in his superduper megafights (he could have beat Trinidad though). MAYBE Pac just because he is genuinely alot smaller than Hoya but his speed of hand and feet would probably still be too much for ODH.
Oh I believe that DLH in his prime would have beaten Pacquiao without a doubt .. especially if there was no catchweight.
I do not believe that DLH would have beaten Floyd. Your account of the fight is inaccurate. DLH was NOT outlanding Floyd. DLH was NOT beating Floyd to the punch throughout the fight.
You wrote that the problem was that DLH encountered some stamina issues later on in the fight. Is the 4th round late in the fight? Because that's when Floyd took over.
DLH was effective in the first 3 rounds with his jab. Then he started getting countered. DLH outweighed Floyd by 20+lbs, so it was only natural that he would bully Floyd until Floyd came up with an answer.
DLH was ONLY effective throughout the fight when he pinned Floyd on the ropes. And Floyd began spinning out of those exchanges.
If DLH would have come in at 147lbs and tried to fight Floyd the way he did every other fight he had at that weight, he would have got a loss. He would have gotten easily outboxed.
Mosley was able to nullify DLH's offense toe to toe, and Mosley never had the skill that Floyd has. Shane is a powerboxer, not a defensive wiz. DLH would have attempted to exchange with Floyd and left himself open for plenty of countershots.
DLH was never know for speed. DLH was never known for power. And DLH was never known for defense. DLH was known as a Mexican who could actually box without having to get beat up in the process. Same with Marquez. The difference is that Marquez is more of a technician .. while DLH was more of a boxer/puncher.
I said it before and I'll say it again: When a boxer doubles the connect percentage of his opponent and there are no knockdowns or knockouts in the fight, the story got told right there in the numbers.
DLH got dominated.
But only a real student of the game knows that. No one doubles their opponent's connect percentage and its a close fight. NO ONE give up 20lbs to an opponent outside of the HW division and wins. Yet Floyd did.
If Pacquiao is Floyd's equal, why doesn't he rematch DLH while coming in at 142 and let DLH come in at 165lbs? Could Pacquiao win under those circumstances? I seriously doubt it. Pacquiao stipulated that DLH come in at 145lbs.
So let's not kid ourselves here.
I don't disagree with anything that you are saying at all; Especially about ODLH outweighing Mayweather on fight night by some 20 odd lbs or more. Also, one can couple that with the fact that Floyd was fighting way beyond his peak weight. Had the two would have met at a 130 lbs, then Mayweather would have won in a landslide because he is nowhere near Oscar's size and neither is Manny but he was unwilling to cut the same amount of weight for Floyd as he did for Manny Pacquiao or make the necessary concessions to make the fight happen either; Like fighting with 8 oz gloves as opposed to those 16 oz gloves he forced Mayweather to wear when they fought. So you are right. ODLH actually gained a substantial amount of weight just so he could gain an unfair advantage over Mayweather and he still the lost fight even by playing by his own rules. So that's another intangible to throw in this hypothetical. Had the playing field been even, could have Oscar performed as well as he did that night against Mayweather? After closer examination we may never know. Also, Floyd was calling out ODLH ever since he was a lightweight and Oscar was a Junior Middleweight because he wanted the big payday that was constantly eluding him. Before then he was even calling out the Prince Hamed at a catch weight of 128 lbs. Additionally, I remember on one of the HBO telecasts he said that he was willing to fight anyone between a 135 to 154 lbs. So I'm pretty sure that he was including ODLH in that mix as well.
Lol that's because he was on steroids.
Vargas might not have looked good in his previous fights, but due to the pre-fight hype via the media, it was a big fight.
I was actually in Vegas when it happened.
True but they don't fix a suspect chin.
Media hype doesn't affect the quality of a win or an opponent.
DLH NEVER won a big fight against a top prime fighter. Never.
DLH got gifts against Sweet Pea and Quartey. Anyone who saw the matches knows that.
Against Quartey he had gotten outboxed 8 out of 12 rounds, but because DLH pulled off a late knockdown they gave him the ENTIRE fight.
Sweet Pea .. well we all know what happened there.
DLH actually beat Trinidad, and its sad that he doesn't even have that, but its karma.
Yes Oscar won big fights against prime fighters. He lost most but won some.
Off the top of my head, I thought the Vargas fight was a big fight. Given their Mexican rivalry and historical significance behind the fight.
Vargas didn't look good in his previous fights, he wasn't suppose to win either.
He thought he was ahead on the cards and Tito could not catch him, If he thought Tito could have got back into the fight he would not have played it safe.]
No, he got tired and didn't want to engage to avoid getting knocked out. And what kind of fighter would run trhe last 4 rounds just because they "think" they are ahead?
Especially the Trinidad fight where he had the fight won but took his foot of the gas in the final rounds.
And in the 2nd fight against PED Mosley where he probably should have taken the decision
True. He decided to coast in the Trini fight thinking he would win. The judges didn't think so. That was pretty dumb.
If I remember correctly, in the post-fight interview they had asked him if he would like a re-match with Tito, and he asked the interviewer if 'he thought the fans would want a see a re-match cause he didn't they would'. Or something along those lines.
No, actually he ran because he didn't want to get knocked out.
He thought he was ahead on the cards and Tito could not catch him, If he thought Tito could have got back into the fight he would not have played it safe.
Especially the Trinidad fight where he had the fight won but took his foot of the gas in the final rounds.
And in the 2nd fight against PED Mosley where he probably should have taken the decision
No, actually he ran because he didn't want to get knocked out.
Oscar won big fights. It's silly to say he didn't.
But, he does get overrated. He was never on Floyd level.
The Pac fight can be arguable cuz' of the size difference. But, I see Pac edging it. Oscar lack of right hand and stamina problems, and lack of defense makes me think that Pac beats him with activity, speed, and relentlessness.
But, there is no other active fighter from 130-154(not counting Martinez) who could beat a prime Oscar.
That will always haunt Oscar despite his raging success.
Especially the Trinidad fight where he had the fight won but took his foot of the gas in the final rounds.
And in the 2nd fight against PED Mosley where he probably should have taken the decision
Hoya is like Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills from back in the day....just could never win the big one :lol1:...GTFOH Oscar!!!
That will always haunt Oscar despite his raging success.
Hoya is like Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills from back in the day....just could never win the big one :lol1:...GTFOH Oscar!!!
true he came up short in all his mega fights
i think a prime shane mosley stands more of a chance at beating pacquiao or mayweather than oscar ever would of