You mention two who were clearly on the decline (although Whitaker was still not that far off his prime), plus one who was arguably on the decline, out of nine names the OP mentioned - talk about cherry picking! So by your own admission, six out of nine of the great fights he was in were against opponents who were in their primes. That's a very good ratio.
And he didn't try to put off a fight with Whitaker or Camacho until they were past their primes. He fought them as soon as the fights could be made.
And he beat several of those six, and in most people's opinions he was robbed against Trinidad and in the Mosley rematch, so it's a huge exaggeration to say he couldn't beat the best. He couldn't beat them all, but he beat some of them and deserved to get the decision against some others.
De La Hoya lost every single one of his Mega Fights
Trinidad
Mosely 1
Mosely 2
Hopkins
Mayweather Jr
Pacquio
"Oscar fought the best when they were on the decline"
Hmm, Am I mistaken or did Oscar not fight a prime Tito Trinidad, Ike Quartey, Oba Carr, Shane Mosley, Hector Camacho, Pernell Whitaker, Genaro Hernandez, Fernando Vargas and Bernard Hopkins at 160?
Oscar fought the best. Stop talking out your ass Mr Khan
I hope Malignaggi wins
Pernell wasn't in his prime, Camacho wasn't in his prime, Trinidad ruined Vargas ability to take a punch, hit him so hard he damaged his eyesight
Khan is basically repeating something he heard at the Wild Card Gym, most probably from Roach himself. It was these very tactics that lead Roach to bring an aging De La Hoya back down to 147 after he hadn't fought at the weight for 7 years, and to only accept the Cotto fight at a catchweight - both for Manny Pacquiao.
Many fighters have taken a similar approach at times though - Mayweather vs Mosley being the most recent example.. Khan is describing a matchmaking tactic that many promoters use, and numerous boxers particpate in.. Mayweather, Pacquiao, Calzaghe, Lewis, Bradley to name a few.
the difference is cotto and delahoya weren't lookin to great at the time where most of floyds opponents were comin off of impressive knock out victorys.
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