Comments Thread For: Oscar De La Hoya: It's the fighters who are killing the sport

[Theshotyoudontsee]

Canelo fans are something else. I don't even like Oscar, but he is just stating the obvious truth. As good as Floyd was, he definitely perfected the "make millions while never getting hit and fighting the right opponents at the right time" things. A generation of boxers watched him as they were coming up and thus, now we see no one ever wants to risk there 0 and they all want big paydays.

Boxing is a bloodsport where people will pay to see battles, KO's and heart. As those go away, so goes the sport.

[MONGOOSE66]

Prime Oscar would dummy Canelo lmao

Nope, Oscar at 154 was OLD and past his prime.
Oscars prime was 135-140. It’s common knowledge

[BrankoB]

Whether you like Oscar or not doesn't change the fact that he's right. Turki may be a disruptive but the sport is being burnt to the ground and nobody is willing to put out the fire.

IMO, FU<k Canelo and his $90, garbage fights against cherry picked no hopes. Fu<k Teo and his absolute BS and with him, FU<K Tank and Haney and that entire group of "I'm the face of boxing" frauds. Even worse, FU<k the entire crop of absolute nobodys that mimic these fakes while demanding millions for anyone better than a plumber. I mean who the hell is Brian Norman that he demands $2 million? Most people don't know that he or his idiot father have anything to do with boxing? I'm no great fan of Oscar but he's right.

Madrimov fought Crawford, unlike Jaron Ennis Bohachuk went after Ortiz and Murtazaliev went after Tim Tszyu and...... Madrimov and Bohachuk are doing it again on the Usyk vs Fury card, again!

It seems like the sport of boxing may not be dead in the rest of the world but in America, it's just BS carnival barkers slightly better than Jake Paul and fans that don't know the difference and don't care.... and maybe that's why REAL fights are moving over sea.

I agree with a lot of points in this post. It is not just the prima dona's like Canelo, Haney, Teo, Tank that are responsible, but also the next level down like Brian Normans of this world who wants $2M for a fight yet nobody has ever heard of him.

However, promoters cannot avoid the blame either. Oscar cannot just point the finger at everybody else like a five year old, blame the world and everybody else and avoid all responsibility. He is notorious for protecting his fighters, matchmaking them softly and avoiding any kind of a real danger for a very long time in their careers (until it is time to cash out).

Interestingly when interviewed even serial murderers blame everybody else for what they did - it is never their fault, it is the victims, the parents, the government, the environment etc. Now I am not saying that boxing promoters or even boxing fathers are serial murderers but some of them come close being total lunatics.

[Elheath]

Elite level fighters are to blame for being unwilling to fight risky opponent.
The tier below is also at blame for ovnrvalueing themselves and demanding more than what they are worth.
The promoters are also at fault for coddling and overmarinating their prize fighters and bickering about the side of the street.

However, with all of the above combined, it is also a big group of fan's fault (who's growth could also be blamed on Mayweather) who automatically praise the fraud undefeated holy zero over good fights with losses. I like Loma but I think he will lose to Tank and Shakur if they fight NOW, however it doesn't change the fact that he was also the only ond willing to fight Teo/Haney when they were still at 135 which is more credit than those who didn't bother. By the way I don't like Haney and think he's boring and lost to Loma but that being said, it doesn't change the fact that he actually signed the contract unlike others. He also took the time to bother to go to Australia to get Kambosos' belts unlike Shakur complaining about a 25 split for undisputed while being beltless and no fans. After his loss to Garcia he is no longer an "elite" level fighter but an afterthought, and I think the loser of Benavides/Morrell will get the same treatment, and the winner will get the same after losing to winner of Beter/Bivol 2.

[crisantonio917]

Stop hating bro!! Jake did more than you'll ever do in this or the next lifetime promoting! You have Zurdo with about 135 people watching in SAUDI and talking SmaK!

[anonymous2.0]

Wasn't Oscar notorious for lowballing his opponents? Back then it was his way or hit the road, nowadays its harder to do that.

[maguirre]

Wasn't Oscar notorious for lowballing his opponents? Back then it was his way or hit the road, nowadays its harder to do that.

First time I've heard of that nonsense. There wasn't any internet in his era where so-called lowballing is talked about. Fighters just fight back then. It was started in the Mayweather era. And in comparison, Floyd vs opponent in terms of purse split is about 1:50. Now that is extreme lowballing.

[CPNUTKnockoutFreshMart]

When you have no valid argument , attack the messenger.

[tomhawq]

Oscar is right. It's the fighters. Nothing rocket science about it. Just look at all the premiere networks that exited boxing. HBO, Fox Sports, Showtime, Spike, NBC, CBS, etc. ESPN is next!

[garfios]

Nope, Oscar at 154 was OLD and past his prime.
Oscars prime was 135-140. It’s common knowledge

"Old" Oscar would have wiped the floor with fraud 2.0