By Brent Matteo Alderson

A lot of people talk about De La Hoya’s star power and always seem to credit the Gold Medal he won for his mother for his popularity and economic clout.  Although the Gold Medal was a powerful springboard to start from it was actually Oscar’s willingness to make the big fights happen that enabled him to become one of the biggest non-heavyweight attractions in the history of the sport.

Just look at his career, even though Oscar’s Olympic success enabled him to earn rare television dates on a number of different networks which included USA, CBS, ESPN, and HBO he didn’t become an economic powerhouse until after he almost successively engaged in one super-fight after another. 

In fact in March of 1994, De La Hoya fought Jimmy Bredahl for the WBO-130 pound title and didn’t even draw a sell out crowd to the Grand Olympic auditorium in his hometown of Los Angeles.  Actually it wasn’t until after he challenged IBF Lightweight champ Rafael Ruelas in May of 1995 that he became a bonafide boxing superstar and began to command million dollar paydays. 

The bout that made Oscar a household name and firmly established his credentials as the sports most lucrative fighter below the Heavyweight division was his fight with Julio Cesar Chavez.  After earning that career high payday Oscar didn’t sit on his behind and request that HBO and Arum set him up a couple of designated knock out victims to protect his status as the sport’s cash cow.

Instead he fought Miguel Angel Gonzalez in his very next fight who came in with a record of 41-0 and then signed to fight Pernell Whitaker, who even though in decline was at worst the 4th or 5th best pound for pound fighter in the world.  That night in April of 1997, De La Hoya eked out a very close and controversial decision against the aging Virginian great. 

Immediately afterward Oscar’s brain-trust realized that the Golden Boy might have bitten off more than he could chew and decided to put him back on a more humble course which included bouts against Kamau, Camacho, Rivera, Charpentier, and an over the hill Chavez. 

Then after some more seasoning Oscar went after the super-fights again and starting in February of 99 until June of 2000 he fought Trinidad, Quartey, and Mosley.  Now I don’t care if your Sugar Ray Robinson or Sugar Ray Leonard, that’s a tough assignment for anyone. 

And De La Hoya wasn’t forced into those fights, he sought them, he chased them, and he made them happen knowing that to make the big money and to really make history that you had to take risks. 

Even though Oscar didn’t come out victorious in all of those matches none of the aforementioned fighters chased him out of the ring and each one of the fights was competitive.  Emanuel Stewart who trained Oscar for a stint in 97 believes that it would be hard for any fighter to go undefeated with that type of schedule, “He fought the best, it would almost be impossible to take those kinds of fights and stay undefeated.  Not too many guys do that for that very same reason because if you keep fighting the best fighters in the world you are going to eventually lose. There’s no doubt about it.” 

Inside the ring Oscar wasn’t as successful as Sugar Ray Leonard was in his round robin with Duran, Benitez, Hearns, and Hagler, but the Golden Boy still left his mark on the sport and earned more money than any other non heavyweight in history. 

That’s what Floyd Mayweather needs to do.  The Judah fight was a step in the right direction, but before that, Floyd wasted a couple of years of earning power and important market development in bouts with mediocre contenders such as Henry Bruseles, a shot Sharmba Mitchell, and Domingo Sosa. 

Floyd was basically following the blue print perfected by Roy Jones of fighting not too threatening opponents for nice multi-million dollar HBO paydays.  Unlike Roy who now has to live with the miscalculations he made during his career, Floyd still has the chance to become a crossover superstar and regularly command ten million dollar paydays.  

 

Floyd is a young articulate good looking kid and still has at least three or four good years left and has already established himself in the pay-per-view market.  His fight with Arturo Gatti did 360,000 buys and his fight with Judah did 350,000 buys.  Those are pretty good numbers for Floyd’s first two pay-per-view events considering that Roy Jones did less than 200,000 buys for his pay-per-view fights with Pazienza, Griffin, and Harding. 

In order to increase that number to over at least a half million buys every time out Floyd needs to do what De La Hoya and Trinidad did towards the end of his career and force the big fights.  And if Floyd can fight De La Hoya, Margarito, Mosley, and Cotto or at least make three of those matches happen he will become a crossover star and his market value will be established at a minimum of ten million dollars per fight.

Just recently Arum offered Floyd 8 million dollars to fight Antonio Margarito and Mayweather rejected the offer and reportedly paid Arum 750,000 dollars to get out of his contract with Top Rank.  I don’t think Floyd is deathly afraid of Margarito, but Floyd realizes that if he took that bout he would lose any chance of fighting Oscar De La Hoya. 

The Golden Boy is scheduled to fight on September 16 in what he claims will be his last fight.  Now Oscar has stated that he would like to make it a super fight against Trinidad, Wright, or Mayweather.  Well Trinidad is permanently retired and I don’t think Oscar would ever get in the ring with Wright considering his two sub par performances at Middleweight so that leaves Pretty Boy Floyd. 

At first Oscar stated that he wouldn’t take the fight with Floyd because he doesn’t want to be a steppingstone for younger fighters, but he has changed his tune of late and Floyd Mayweather Senior has also stated that he would train Oscar for the fight. 

Right here on BoxingScene.com Mayweather commented, “I’ll tell you this I’m not going to let my son sit up here at the end of the day and have his daddy back down and let somebody else train Oscar and let somebody else get all the money that I’m supposed to get then my son isn’t going to give his daddy a damn thing.  I would look like a fool if I stepped to the side.  Anytime you’re fighting a guy as big as Oscar there’s a real risk in that as well.”

Supposing Oscar gets by Mayorga this weekend the wheels will be rolling to make the Mayweather fight which will be intriguing to the general public as well as too close observers of the sport.  I don’t know the legal entanglements involved, but De La Hoya can call the shots on this one.  Remember Bernard Hopkins took 10 million in comparison to Oscar’s thirty in their fight and that’s Hopkins, a man who has a history of crying about being undervalued and the Executioner was delighted to take the fight for 10 million. 

This is Oscar’s swan song and Floyd would do the fight for 12 million especially if he realizes that compensation for the fight would be the short-term benefit and that in the long term it would have a positive impact on his future earning potential especially if he were to come out victorious.

Simply put the fight is the perfect opportunity for De La Hoya as well as Floyd even if Mayweather is forced to sign a promotional contract with Golden Boy Promotions.  First off, I think De La Hoya will try to sign Floyd to probably a two year-six fight contract stipulating that the first fight is with the Golden Boy himself.  This would be beneficial to Oscar since his company’s stars are at the end of their careers and it would also facilitate a future match between Mosley and Floyd even if Shane loses to Vargas in July.

Secondly assuming Oscar wins the fight with Mayorga he will have the 154 pound strap and be in the advantageous position of setting the parameters of the fight in his favor.  We all know that Oscar likes to use his clout at the box office to force guys to take fights under terms which are to his advantage. 

Look he would never fight Genaro Hernandez at 130 and made the frail junior lightweight come up to 135.  He also made Hopkins come in at 156 and probably only signed to fight Trinidad because he knew that the Puerto Rican Juggernaut had been making the 147 pound limit since he had been in his teens.

Taking this into account I think Oscar will have Mayweather come up to 154 to fight for his title at a catch weight of 150 which will favor Oscar since he hasn’t made the 147 pound limit since 2001.  That being said I think De La Hoya-Mayweather is an intriguing fight and even though I favor Mayweather to out speed Oscar and win a decision, it’s possible that the naturally bigger De La Hoya could come in and knock Floyd out with his big left hook.  Still I think at the end of the day Mayweather will dance his way to a decision and they will both be winners. 

Floyd will gain even more mainstream acceptance and all of his future fights will do at least 500,000 pay-per-view buys while Oscar will have control over the sport’s premiere fighter.  I just hope that Mayweather tries to emulate Oscar and strives to be great and makes a real effort to make the big fights happen.  Who knows maybe he can do what Oscar failed to do and establish himself as one of the ten greatest fighters in the history of the sport, right along side of Sugar Ray Leonard.

Notes:

Reportedly Oscar made a cool million for his fight with John-John Molina in February of 1995.

People love Caucasian fighters. I got more e-mails from people regarding my articles on Wladimir Klitschko, Tommy Morrison, and Ricky Hatton than any of my other 40 articles combined.

Everybody is on the Klitschko’s train again, but even in the article I wrote about him I stated that a win over Byrd was a foregone conclusion.  Klitschko’s weakness is his chin and Byrd has never hit that hard and he hadn’t been impressive since his win over Holyfield in 2002.  At the moment, Klitschko is probably the world’s best heavyweight, but there’s no way his chin will allow him to hold that spot for very long. 

I wish Chris and his family the best and think Byrd should get into commenting.  He’s articulate, bright, and he knows the sport.

I like Samuel Peter and think he has a chance to become champion, but after seeing him come in 13 pounds heavier in his fight with Long, I think that his chances of becoming the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion have diminished.  He’s supposed to be young and hungry and he’s already fattening up.  He should take a look at Mercer’s career because if the Merciless one came in shape for all his bouts he wouldn’t have lost to Jesse Ferguson and would have gotten the opportunity to fight Riddick Bowe. 

I like Rocky Juarez in his fight with Barrera.  Don’t ask me why, but it’s a hunch.

I hope Pacquiao makes it to the Wild Card gym soon because his opponent, Oscar Larios is no slouch.  Come on Manny, stop basking in your success and take your career seriously because now you’re the one everybody is after.

I thought Oscar won his fights with Whitaker and Quartey.  I still can’t believe that people think he lost the fight with Ike especially considering how close he was to knocking the Ghanaian fighter out in the last round. I do think Oscar lost to Felix Sturm, but every great fighter deserves a gift decision in a close fight. I guess you can call it a reward for distinguished service.  Foreman got one in his fight against Axel Schultz, Ali got one against Jimmy Young, Roy Jones got his in the first fight with Tarver, and Sugar Ray got one in the second Hearns fight.

This article is speculative, but if you check out my article about the WBC 154pound belt, I predicted that Oscar would fight Mayorga before Oscar even knew he would fight him.  The article was posted last September.  https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=1972

I have a book review in the Ring this month on the children’s book, Fighting El Fuego.  If you have kids that are between the ages of 8 and 13 have them check it out. 

Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com