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Just a few final thoughts on Oscar De La Hoya's "Homecoming" fight with Steve Forbes at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles last week.
It seemed that Forbes and De La Hoya had an agreement not to do harm to each other.
Maybe it was the silent kind that Teddy Atlas, the trainer and ESPN analyst, talks about being brokered in a fight between boxers.
Whatever the case when it was over De La Hoya had scored a shutout on one judge's scorecard and Forbes had been given a round on two others.
Forbes talked about not getting dropped and it being an honor being in the ring with De La Hoya.
And De La Hoya talked about how sharp he felt, and how he would use that same straight up style and jab against Mayweather.
De La Hoya is clearly delusional if he thinks he can use the same style against Mayweather, who is stronger, quicker and faster than Forbes.
And even Forbes had De La Hoya's face looking like ripe tomato after three rounds.
De La Hoya is 35 now.
While that's not old, it's not young, either.
He was just ordinary against Forbes and that is not good enough to compete with any of the young welterweights in the game, let alone the best boxer in the sport.
Forbes is a very good boxer. He won a junior lightweight world champion and has never been knocked down as a pro. He is not at his best at 150 pounds, the contract weight against De La Hoya.
I know he fought at 154 pounds for the TV boxing reality show "The Contender" and he was the runner up in the second season.
But that is more a testament to Forbe's ability and the lack of real boxing talent on the show.
I would love to see Forbes at 140 pounds.
I think he could be a handful for anyone at that weight. He could compete for a title at that weight.
De La Hoya is on the full money run now.
He is talking about fighting twice more this year, which is just talk.
Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy CEO, has always said it takes six months to properly promote De La Hoya's fights.
If De La Hoya fights in September, there is no way he would fight against in December.
The last time De La Hoya fought three times in one year was 1999.
The year is almost over and De La Hoya is just now coming off his first fight.
He also said that he would like to finish his career with a fight against Miguel Cotto.
That would be a finish to his career, because Cotto would destroy him much faster than Mayweather.
I don't think there's anyway that De La Hoya will fight Cotto, because the Puerto Rican welterweight champion is just the sort of fighter that would give De La Hoya the most trouble - fast, strong and a relentless body puncher.
De La Hoya will continue to fight whomever he wants for as long as he can because it is a vast source of revenue for him and his company.
As long as he has the promise of fighting, he will be able to convince HBO to back the matches he can produce from his promotion company.
That's just business. But there's no reason that we can't call him on it and tell the truth about his skills and his opponents.
I'm not excited about De La Hoya-Mayweather II. I would love to see De La Hoya fight someone like Cotto or Margarito or Paul Williams or Carlos Quintana or even Kermit Cintron.
But I fear that De La Hoya will go in another direction - safety first with an eye on the bottom line.
De La Hoya's entire career has been carefully crafted. It wasn't until later in his career that he started to take risk.
Give him credit for being able to put together the necessary victories to keep people interested.
He came up short against Felix Trinidad in a fight that he should have won and he lost decisions to Shane Mosley and was KO'by Bernard Hopkins. But all of them were blockbuster events.
The trick for him now becomes how to keep himself viable and sustain that interest when it's obvious that he's just an ordinary boxer and certainly not someone who can shake up the welterweight ranks
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Found it on Digg.com
It seemed that Forbes and De La Hoya had an agreement not to do harm to each other.
Maybe it was the silent kind that Teddy Atlas, the trainer and ESPN analyst, talks about being brokered in a fight between boxers.
Whatever the case when it was over De La Hoya had scored a shutout on one judge's scorecard and Forbes had been given a round on two others.
Forbes talked about not getting dropped and it being an honor being in the ring with De La Hoya.
And De La Hoya talked about how sharp he felt, and how he would use that same straight up style and jab against Mayweather.
De La Hoya is clearly delusional if he thinks he can use the same style against Mayweather, who is stronger, quicker and faster than Forbes.
And even Forbes had De La Hoya's face looking like ripe tomato after three rounds.
De La Hoya is 35 now.
While that's not old, it's not young, either.
He was just ordinary against Forbes and that is not good enough to compete with any of the young welterweights in the game, let alone the best boxer in the sport.
Forbes is a very good boxer. He won a junior lightweight world champion and has never been knocked down as a pro. He is not at his best at 150 pounds, the contract weight against De La Hoya.
I know he fought at 154 pounds for the TV boxing reality show "The Contender" and he was the runner up in the second season.
But that is more a testament to Forbe's ability and the lack of real boxing talent on the show.
I would love to see Forbes at 140 pounds.
I think he could be a handful for anyone at that weight. He could compete for a title at that weight.
De La Hoya is on the full money run now.
He is talking about fighting twice more this year, which is just talk.
Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy CEO, has always said it takes six months to properly promote De La Hoya's fights.
If De La Hoya fights in September, there is no way he would fight against in December.
The last time De La Hoya fought three times in one year was 1999.
The year is almost over and De La Hoya is just now coming off his first fight.
He also said that he would like to finish his career with a fight against Miguel Cotto.
That would be a finish to his career, because Cotto would destroy him much faster than Mayweather.
I don't think there's anyway that De La Hoya will fight Cotto, because the Puerto Rican welterweight champion is just the sort of fighter that would give De La Hoya the most trouble - fast, strong and a relentless body puncher.
De La Hoya will continue to fight whomever he wants for as long as he can because it is a vast source of revenue for him and his company.
As long as he has the promise of fighting, he will be able to convince HBO to back the matches he can produce from his promotion company.
That's just business. But there's no reason that we can't call him on it and tell the truth about his skills and his opponents.
I'm not excited about De La Hoya-Mayweather II. I would love to see De La Hoya fight someone like Cotto or Margarito or Paul Williams or Carlos Quintana or even Kermit Cintron.
But I fear that De La Hoya will go in another direction - safety first with an eye on the bottom line.
De La Hoya's entire career has been carefully crafted. It wasn't until later in his career that he started to take risk.
Give him credit for being able to put together the necessary victories to keep people interested.
He came up short against Felix Trinidad in a fight that he should have won and he lost decisions to Shane Mosley and was KO'by Bernard Hopkins. But all of them were blockbuster events.
The trick for him now becomes how to keep himself viable and sustain that interest when it's obvious that he's just an ordinary boxer and certainly not someone who can shake up the welterweight ranks
-----------
Found it on Digg.com
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