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I felt embarrassed. We sometimes order take-out for dinner, and they would bring it to our house and I was embarrassed to answer the door and sign for the check because I didn't want to see anyone.”
-- Oscar De La Hoya on his reaction to his defeat by Manny Pacquiao
by DanRafael
Pardon Oscar De La Hoya if he just doesn't know what to do. The 10-time titleholder across six weight divisions is really struggling right now.
Should he stay?
Or should he go?
It has been three months since he took the beating of his life, an eighth-round TKO loss to Manny Pacquiao in which the favored De La Hoya was not at all competitive against a smaller man. After the eighth round, his face swollen and his spirit broken, De La Hoya retired on his stool, and many wondered whether it would be the last time they saw him box.
Since a postfight interview with HBO's Larry Merchant in the ring following the bout, De La Hoya has kept a low profile. He didn't attend the news conference after the fight because he was at the hospital, and he came out of his cocoon only briefly in January to help promote a mixed martial arts event with which his company, Golden Boy Promotions, was involved.
Now, De La Hoya is talking again, but he still has no good answers about what he intends to do.
"I'm just not sure if I will fight or I will retire," De La Hoya told ESPN.com in a 40-minute telephone interview. "I am still caught in that. I am still trying to answer that question. It's still confusing.
"One side of me tells me that was not me up in there in that ring when I fought Pacquiao. Another side says, 'Well, Pacquiao beat you, and it's over; you don't have it anymore.' Everywhere I go, people ask when I will fight again. Then some people say, 'Hey, Oscar, you were great, but it's time to hang 'em up. Why keep on getting hurt?' But I am not basing my decision on what people are telling me, including my family. It's going to be based on what I think, and I am still confused."
De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs), who turned 36 on Feb. 4, has listened to input from his family -- his wife, Millie, and brother Joel Jr., in particular. He also has kept to himself while playing a lot of golf at a country club near his home in Puerto Rico.
Mainly, he has been relaxing and contemplating his future after the loss to Pacquiao, a defeat that dropped De La Hoya to 3-4 in his past seven bouts, including two losses by knockout.
"I've gained a couple of pounds and played a lot of golf," he said. "I'm just spending a lot of time in Puerto Rico with my wife and kids, relaxing and playing golf three or four times a week."
De La Hoya said that even on the golf course, however, thoughts about his boxing future permeate his mind.
"I've had a lot of time to think about it, and it's becoming a burden," he said. "I'll be standing over the ball putting for eagle, and I'm thinking about retirement and I miss the putt."
De La Hoya said the loss severely bruised his ego. He said he didn't want to leave the house and didn't want to see anyone for weeks.
"I have to be honest with you," he said. "I felt embarrassed. We sometimes order take-out for dinner, and they would bring it to our house and I was embarrassed to answer the door and sign for the check because I didn't want to see anyone. I was embarrassed. I let everybody down."
De La Hoya said that immediately after the fight with Pacquiao, he returned to the dressing room, and among the people there were his wife and brother.
"Right when we got to the dressing room, Millie gave me this hard look and said, 'I think that's it.' But after a few weeks, she told me, 'It's your decision; you do what you want to do.' But it's difficult because I know she wants me to retire. My brother said I should hang 'em up. He has never said that before, and he's been there from day one. It's so confusing, so I'm going to take it slowly. What I really hope is that one day I will wake up and know that I should either fight or retire. If I do decide to fight, I hope it's sooner than later, because I'm 36 and I'm not getting any younger."
De La Hoya admitted he isn't the same fighter he was in his heyday, when some even listed him as boxing's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the late 1990s.
He said he began feeling his age in the second half of his May 2007 junior middleweight title fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., who won the fight on a split decision to claim De La Hoya's belt.
"I had a hunch and a feeling in the second half of the Mayweather fight that I was slipping," De La Hoya said. "Physically, I felt it."
De La Hoya himself speculates that his May 2007 fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. might have been the beginning of the end.In his next fight, in May 2008, De La Hoya easily outpointed Steve Forbes at 150 pounds. It was a lopsided victory, but De La Hoya emerged with a broken bone in his face, bruises and a swollen eye. That the damage was inflicted by the light-hitting Forbes, who was 10 pounds heavier than his normal fighting weight, alarmed De La Hoya.
"With the Stevie Forbes fight, there was a fighter I should have knocked out, even though he's not an easy fighter to knock out," De La Hoya said. "I did hit him with a lot of hard shots, but look how I came out? Marked up and bruised. That was another sign of the wear and tear on my body and that I am not the same fighter I was. Then you go into the Pacquiao fight, and that should be the nail in the coffin. But then you take everything into consideration, and I look at what [Golden Boy partners] Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins did [at advanced ages]. And I look at Pacquiao being a southpaw, and you think that styles make fights, and if he was a righty, maybe it would have been different.
"I'm just very confused. I am really confused. Now I know why it's so difficult for a fighter to retire. I'm in this position right now where it's not about money. I have money. It's love for the game, love for the sport, the passion I have for it. But when I make my decision, it's going to be a firm one."
Many times in recent years, De La Hoya has said he will not be a fighter who retires and unretires, which is so common in the sport.
"I don't want to retire and come back," he said. "I don't think there's any need for it. Once I make my decision, that's it. That's why it's taking so long. I want it to be 100 percent. I hope one day I wake up out of bed and know what to do."
De La Hoya said he still is trying to figure out what went so wrong against Pacquiao. He said the fact that the bout was so lopsided was a shock to him.
"Manny beat me hands down," he said. "I give him full credit, 100 percent. He took care of business; he did his job."
De La Hoya also had kind words for Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer and De La Hoya's former trainer, with whom he traded sometimes nasty rhetoric throughout the promotion. He also praised his own trainer, Nacho Beristain.
"Freddie Roach did a magnificent job in having the game plan to beat me," De La Hoya said.
-- Oscar De La Hoya on his reaction to his defeat by Manny Pacquiao
by DanRafael
Pardon Oscar De La Hoya if he just doesn't know what to do. The 10-time titleholder across six weight divisions is really struggling right now.
Should he stay?
Or should he go?
It has been three months since he took the beating of his life, an eighth-round TKO loss to Manny Pacquiao in which the favored De La Hoya was not at all competitive against a smaller man. After the eighth round, his face swollen and his spirit broken, De La Hoya retired on his stool, and many wondered whether it would be the last time they saw him box.
Since a postfight interview with HBO's Larry Merchant in the ring following the bout, De La Hoya has kept a low profile. He didn't attend the news conference after the fight because he was at the hospital, and he came out of his cocoon only briefly in January to help promote a mixed martial arts event with which his company, Golden Boy Promotions, was involved.
Now, De La Hoya is talking again, but he still has no good answers about what he intends to do.
"I'm just not sure if I will fight or I will retire," De La Hoya told ESPN.com in a 40-minute telephone interview. "I am still caught in that. I am still trying to answer that question. It's still confusing.
"One side of me tells me that was not me up in there in that ring when I fought Pacquiao. Another side says, 'Well, Pacquiao beat you, and it's over; you don't have it anymore.' Everywhere I go, people ask when I will fight again. Then some people say, 'Hey, Oscar, you were great, but it's time to hang 'em up. Why keep on getting hurt?' But I am not basing my decision on what people are telling me, including my family. It's going to be based on what I think, and I am still confused."
De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs), who turned 36 on Feb. 4, has listened to input from his family -- his wife, Millie, and brother Joel Jr., in particular. He also has kept to himself while playing a lot of golf at a country club near his home in Puerto Rico.
Mainly, he has been relaxing and contemplating his future after the loss to Pacquiao, a defeat that dropped De La Hoya to 3-4 in his past seven bouts, including two losses by knockout.
"I've gained a couple of pounds and played a lot of golf," he said. "I'm just spending a lot of time in Puerto Rico with my wife and kids, relaxing and playing golf three or four times a week."
De La Hoya said that even on the golf course, however, thoughts about his boxing future permeate his mind.
"I've had a lot of time to think about it, and it's becoming a burden," he said. "I'll be standing over the ball putting for eagle, and I'm thinking about retirement and I miss the putt."
De La Hoya said the loss severely bruised his ego. He said he didn't want to leave the house and didn't want to see anyone for weeks.
"I have to be honest with you," he said. "I felt embarrassed. We sometimes order take-out for dinner, and they would bring it to our house and I was embarrassed to answer the door and sign for the check because I didn't want to see anyone. I was embarrassed. I let everybody down."
De La Hoya said that immediately after the fight with Pacquiao, he returned to the dressing room, and among the people there were his wife and brother.
"Right when we got to the dressing room, Millie gave me this hard look and said, 'I think that's it.' But after a few weeks, she told me, 'It's your decision; you do what you want to do.' But it's difficult because I know she wants me to retire. My brother said I should hang 'em up. He has never said that before, and he's been there from day one. It's so confusing, so I'm going to take it slowly. What I really hope is that one day I will wake up and know that I should either fight or retire. If I do decide to fight, I hope it's sooner than later, because I'm 36 and I'm not getting any younger."
De La Hoya admitted he isn't the same fighter he was in his heyday, when some even listed him as boxing's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the late 1990s.
He said he began feeling his age in the second half of his May 2007 junior middleweight title fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., who won the fight on a split decision to claim De La Hoya's belt.
"I had a hunch and a feeling in the second half of the Mayweather fight that I was slipping," De La Hoya said. "Physically, I felt it."
De La Hoya himself speculates that his May 2007 fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. might have been the beginning of the end.In his next fight, in May 2008, De La Hoya easily outpointed Steve Forbes at 150 pounds. It was a lopsided victory, but De La Hoya emerged with a broken bone in his face, bruises and a swollen eye. That the damage was inflicted by the light-hitting Forbes, who was 10 pounds heavier than his normal fighting weight, alarmed De La Hoya.
"With the Stevie Forbes fight, there was a fighter I should have knocked out, even though he's not an easy fighter to knock out," De La Hoya said. "I did hit him with a lot of hard shots, but look how I came out? Marked up and bruised. That was another sign of the wear and tear on my body and that I am not the same fighter I was. Then you go into the Pacquiao fight, and that should be the nail in the coffin. But then you take everything into consideration, and I look at what [Golden Boy partners] Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins did [at advanced ages]. And I look at Pacquiao being a southpaw, and you think that styles make fights, and if he was a righty, maybe it would have been different.
"I'm just very confused. I am really confused. Now I know why it's so difficult for a fighter to retire. I'm in this position right now where it's not about money. I have money. It's love for the game, love for the sport, the passion I have for it. But when I make my decision, it's going to be a firm one."
Many times in recent years, De La Hoya has said he will not be a fighter who retires and unretires, which is so common in the sport.
"I don't want to retire and come back," he said. "I don't think there's any need for it. Once I make my decision, that's it. That's why it's taking so long. I want it to be 100 percent. I hope one day I wake up out of bed and know what to do."
De La Hoya said he still is trying to figure out what went so wrong against Pacquiao. He said the fact that the bout was so lopsided was a shock to him.
"Manny beat me hands down," he said. "I give him full credit, 100 percent. He took care of business; he did his job."
De La Hoya also had kind words for Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer and De La Hoya's former trainer, with whom he traded sometimes nasty rhetoric throughout the promotion. He also praised his own trainer, Nacho Beristain.
"Freddie Roach did a magnificent job in having the game plan to beat me," De La Hoya said.
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