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De La Hoya needs to fight Mayweather to leave his mark
Oscar De La Hoya might not think so and might not want to, but he needs to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. if he's still dreaming about joining the big list of all-time greats.
De La Hoya used to dream about that list, I know. He used to talk about Alexis Arguello, Salvador Sanchez and Julio Cesar Chavez. He used to.
Two things were always special about him: He thought about that list, and everybody knew he could get on that list. Maybe a dozen fighters every 10 to 15 years have a realistic shot at getting on the list, and De La Hoya was one of this generation's lucky few.
Then somewhere between the $20 million paydays and the women and the defeats to Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley (twice), De La Hoya stopped trying to be an all-time great and just settled into glitzy celebrity.
He's 33. He has talked about retiring for almost a decade. He just thrashed crude and clumsy Ricardo Mayorga last weekend in a bout that was far more about money and fame than it was about history.
``If he runs into trouble, Mayorga could go into business as a mail-order opponent,'' analyst and trainer Teddy Atlas told me this week. ``You order him up if you need him. Oscar doesn't get credit for dialing up a mail-order guy.''
Of course, De La Hoya's supplicants claimed the victory was redemption for his recent inactivity and string of lackluster defeats. Redeemed by beating a guy who was whupped two years ago by Felix Trinidad, who himself was quickly whupped by Winky Wright?
``Redemption,'' Sugar Ray Leonard responded via e-mail when I wondered what he thought of De La Hoya-Mayorga, ``is beating the one that beat you.''
Which is what Leonard did against Roberto Duran, and one of the main reasons Leonard is on the list.
De La Hoya will never get as high up the list as Leonard or Duran, partly because De La Hoya's most prominent foes have been flawed or old, not all of which was Oscar's fault.
Still, in many more benevolent quarters, De La Hoya is considered a great fighter. Maybe not a top-50 guy, but close enough to Jake LaMotta, Aaron Pryor and Roy Jones Jr. to at least start a discussion.
I don't think so. Atlas doesn't think so. Famous? Yes. Great? No.
``The critics of today are at about the same level as the fighters of today -- they're not as good,'' Atlas said. ``It's a world of less demand and less accountability. So he'll be served much more gently in his final assessment.
``But still, that doesn't change the fact that great is great and very good is very good. And I think Oscar's very good. Not great.''
De La Hoya had a chance to make a claim for greatness by dominating Trinidad in 1999, then he gave away the final three rounds in a blatant decision to avoid getting hit.
But De La Hoya is still graced by good luck: Most fighters get zero chances to achieve lasting greatness, and Oscar keeps getting them, over and over.
He had another shot two years ago against Bernard Hopkins, then took a liver shot and fell to the canvas in a theatrical and less-than-immortal way.
Now De La Hoya has his last shot. It's his best shot because it's also his riskiest -- and it sort of echoes Leonard's greatest risk.
In 1987, coming off a three-year layoff because of a serious eye problem, Leonard took on Marvin Hagler, then boxing's most dangerous man, and came out with a controversial, legendary victory.
That one fight put Leonard over the top, on the list, and into everybody's memories as a guy you tell your kids about. Mayweather is no Hagler, obviously -- for one, he's smaller than De La Hoya, and Hagler was bigger than Leonard.
But Mayweather probably is the best fighter in the world, he's younger and faster than De La Hoya, and he's itching for this. Mayweather could get on the list, too. And he's estranged from his famous father, who now trains De La Hoya.
``If he chooses to fight Mayweather, and if he beats Mayweather, I guess you could say that would be his version of Hagler, to a lesser degree,'' Atlas said. ``If he beats Mayweather, he's going to ride off in the sunset on a high note, with a legacy and with a lot of people in their minds saying, `Wow, he was special, he was great.' ''
I think in the back of his mind, De La Hoya knows that he has fulfilled almost every one of his dreams, but not the biggest one. So I challenge him to challenge himself, one last time, in a way that he has avoided for so long.
Fight Mayweather. Or history will forget you, too, Oscar. www.doghouseboxing.com www.maxboxing.com
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Originally Posted by miles
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