OnThEGRiND BoXiNG

Saturday, April 11th 2009
by Suge Green

Firstly, I’m not pretending I know what Oscar De La Hoya’s highly anticipated announcement is. However from his appearance this weekend on ESPN2’s FridayNightFights, he gave hints to the boxing world’s insiders that what they have believed all along is true…Oscar will indeed fight again, and he will sell the “weight thing” hard as his reason for looking shot last year in Las Vegas against Manny Pacquiao.

When he makes his announcement on the 14th of this month at Los Angeles’ Staples Center he may give an approximate time for his return, or he may say he’s not returning at all for now…but when he does talk, “the weight” is going to be his big excuse for his disassembly at the quick hands of Manny Pacquiao, and whether he chooses to admit it or not, at some point he WILL fight again.

If Oscar is as smart as some of us think he is he will sign Julio Cesar Chavez (far-fetched I know, but look at the guy standing next to him, Bernard Hopkins…the guy who KOd him with a body punch), but hold off on fighting him next. He must allow Chavez to look impressive on his biggest stage yet first, while Oscar himself should fight another adversary…perhaps a past Floyd Mayweather Jr. opponent, and defeat him more soundly and impressively than Floyd did.

I understand this might not be very simple considering the weight of most past PBF opponents, and what Oscar will announce as his targeted fighting weight…but money talks, and we must not forget that Oscar is bilingual. He is fluent in both Spanglish, and the all mighty dollar.

With Floyd returning, Oscar is certainly pondering how he might sell a rematch to the public eventually against “Money May.” Defeating a past Mayweather opponent can in a way, create new questions, and when factoring in current states of prime (and the respective distances from it each fighter finds himself in), and decay, and rust…the answer as to who would win that rematch would not be so clear to a PPV buying public that is largely ignorant as to where the emphasis should lay, and where the majority of the weight should be placed when considering the likely prospects of winners and losers in a boxing match.

In short the Golden Boy’s “Golden Plan” could be…

Chavez fights… opponent “X.”
De La Hoya fights… a past Floyd opponent, or someone with not too distant past P4P claims
Chavez’ profile is raised putting more $$$ in the pot for their eventual clash.
Oscar erases at least most of the mainstream assertions as to his “shotness.”

By the time Chavez and DLH fight, since it will be the second time they both climb in the ring counting forward from this moment, Floyd will have already had one bout…possibly against the Ricky Hatton-Pacman victor.

Oscar’s cash out plan would then be…

1st fight against opponent “x,”
2nd fight against Chavez,
3rd fight against winner of Floyd vs Hatton-Pacman winner
…or he can even face one of the losers, if he should choose to delay his retirement further.

No matter what the Oscar De La Hoya chooses to do, he’s sure to remain worthy of the name “Golden Boy” for a long time to come.