The ‘Golden Boy’ Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) wants to come out of retirement, and he’s already preparing for a possible fight in late 2020 or early 2021. De La Hoya, 47, wants a “top” guy at 147, who he’ll bring up to 154 or 160 to fight.
The idea behind De La Hoya bringing the fighter up to 154 or 160 is so that he’s not weight drained. Oscar would have a hard time in losing enough weight to make 147 at this point in his life.
Assuming that the money is De La Hoya’s chief reason for making a comeback, he needs to focus on either retired guys or fighters from the UFC. In other words, De La Hoya can take a page out of Floyd Mayweather’s playbook.
There would be a tremendous amount of interest if De La Hoya set up a fight against Conor McGregor. That would be a genuinely 50-50 fight at this point. De La Hoya has the experience and the ring IQ to dominate the 31-year-old McGregor, but he lacks youth and the health that he has going for him.
To make money, De La Hoya should focus on winnable fights against McGregor-type of fighters. Another reasonable avenue for De La Hoya would be for him to face retired stars like Ricky Hatton or Kostya Tszyu. Those would be exciting fights for De La Hoya, and a lot of boxing fans would like to see those match-ups.
If De La Hoya insists on fighting an active welterweight, then he should face Amir Khan. This is a semi-retired fighter, who rarely fights nowadays, and has punch resistance problems.
Although Khan hasn’t retired yet, his career was arguably over in 2012. People would love to see De La Hoya and Khan fight, and they wouldn’t blame Oscar for picking him. A rematch with Manny Pacquiao would be a good money-earner for De La Hoya, but it wouldn’t be a winnable fight for him.
—-Boxingnews24
