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De La Hoya differed with Trinidad on money and weight for a rematch. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
From the moment they left the ring following their 1999 mega-fight, boxing fans have clamored for a rematch between Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad, who won their welterweight unification bout on a highly controversial majority decision.
Although there has been on-and-off talk about a rematch for the past seven years -- especially because the fight generated a non-heavyweight record 1.4 million pay-per-view buys -- it has never gotten too serious, especially with De La Hoya having long layoffs and Trinidad retiring for 2½ years before launching a two-fight comeback in 2004.
Even though Trinidad retired again after he was schooled by Winky Wright in May 2005, the talk has persisted that the rematch could happen as a career finale for both stars.
De La Hoya (38-4, 30 KOs), who has won belts in six divisions, is planning what he claims will be his final fight in May 2007 and had decided that pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. was his only choice for an opponent.
Felix Trinidad
Trinidad
Then De La Hoya, 33, changed his mind recently and said he would be open to again facing Trinidad, 33, who, according to media reports in Puerto Rico, was training again and thinking about fighting.
However, making the rematch has always come down to pride, money and weight.
Trinidad (42-2, 35 KOs), a former three-division champion, took the short end of a 60-40 split the first time around against De La Hoya and always insisted that a rematch be fought under the same terms, but in his favor.
De La Hoya, the biggest non-heavyweight draw in boxing history, would never accept those terms, or anything close to them.
So finally, when Trinidad's father, Felix Sr., told Puerto Rican media recently that the Trinidad camp would budge and go 50-50 on a rematch, there appeared to be a glimmer of hope.
However, De La Hoya scoffed at the notion of splitting the money evenly and said he would do the fight 70-30 in his favor. He sees no reason to share the revenue evenly, not when he generated 925,000 pay-per-view buys in May by winning a junior middleweight belt against second-tier opponent Ricardo Mayorga. When Trinidad came out of retirement against Mayorga, the pay-per-view drew about half that figure.
There is also the issue of weight. De La Hoya, who didn't look good in his two middleweight fights, said he would not fight a rematch above 154 pounds. Trinidad, who has been a middleweight since moving up in 2001, said he would not go below 160 pounds.
Although Trinidad promoter Don King has been calling Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer regularly in an effort to get talks going in the right direction, De La Hoya said he's finally finished with Trinidad for good.
"I want to lay to rest the whole Trinidad situation," De La Hoya told ESPN.com from his home in Puerto Rico, which is within walking distance of Trinidad's home. "I am thinking that Trinidad's father came out once again after a couple of years to call me out, which has been happening since we last fought. Trinidad retires and then his father comes out of the woodwork eventually, saying I'm a chicken, I'm a coward. It's really bad because I think truly the father maybe ran out of money or something, so he figures he can get his son to fight me and make some more money.
"I'm saying this fight is never going to happen. Let's lay it to rest. I can't make 160, he can't make 154. I can only make 160 if I eat tamales. It can't happen. They're asking 50-50. It is a joke, it's ridiculous. If you think about it, even if we offer them a 70-30 split my way, it will still be the biggest purse he ever made. He might as well take it."
De La Hoya said he told Schaefer to ignore King's phone calls from now on.
"I gave specific instructions to Richard not to answer his calls anymore," De La Hoya said. "The train has left the station. They can call me a coward as much as they want, but the train has left. This fight will never happen."Comment
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De La Hoya wanted it right away, he even flew to Puerto Rico but Arum who was promoting DLH messed the rematch up by not budging 50/50. Arum wanted the lion share.Comment
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Because, Oscar really didn't wanted it...Comment
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Dela Hoya agreed to fight Hopkins at a catch weight of 156lbs, I dont see how he wouldnt fight tito at 160lbs as the trinidads insists, 50/50 is fair enough but DLH just doesnt want to redeem himself. he suffered even worse fighting at 147 and getting beat up by Manny Pacquiao.Comment
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