The legendary boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya announced his comeback to boxing at the age of 47 on social media, and he said he was serious about it.
The Golden Boy hasn’t fought in the ring since 2008 when he lost by TKO to Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao in a fight that was billed as the Dream Fight, because it pit the featherweight champion against the former welterweight champion in a David vs Goliath battle.
Pacquiao eventually won the match against a severely depleted an weight drained De La Hoya. It turned out the Filipino southpaw was actually the bigger man on fight night weighing 148 pounds to Oscar De La Hoya’s 145.
Watching the fight was painful to see. Oscar put up little resistance and couldn’t pull the trigger all his energy was focused on making the 147-pound division a weight class he hadn’t been in ages.
He had no energy and Pacquiao was hitting him with all he had and still couldn’t drop or wobble the shell of himself former champion.
That fight left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Even though I wasn’t the biggest Oscar De La Hoya fan because of how he did my childhood hero Julio Cesar Chavez fighting him when he was old and washed up, I still felt sad for him because he didn’t have to go out like that.
Now in 2020, De La Hoya in his late 40’s is ready to give boxing one more shot and wants to compete in the 154-pound junior middleweight division.
I don’t know if its a good idea to have him face off against the likes of the Charlo brothers or any serious young lion, but I could see him face a guy like Sergio Martinez who recently won his comeback fight and is also in his 40s.
Another option I would like to see is for Oscar to get a few tune-up fights to see how he looks to shake the cobwebs off and then if he looks good, I would like to see Manny Pacquiao face him in a rematch at 154-pounds to be fair.
This is a great chance for Oscar to get his revenge after they weight drained him with that rehydration stipulation just to get an upper hand over him.
If Pacquiao wants a big money fight he should give Oscar a rematch, but only if Oscar looks in great shape after one or two tune-up bouts. If Oscar can’t take a punch anymore and looks his age, he should hang it up, but revenge should be his main focus and he should focus on landing that Pacquiao rematch.
Pacquiao is also in his 40s, so they will be be in the same age bracket, although Pacquiao has been more active, I think it will be an interesting match especially if Oscar looks good and is not weight drained.
I know Pacquiao won’t take the fight if Oscar looks amazing and powerful because Freddie Roach who cherry picks his opponents will look at a fit in shape Oscar as a real threat and will only allow Manny to fight him if he looks bad in his comeback fights.
With Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr fighting in an exhibition bout with a lot of people interested and curious, I wouldn’t knock the idea of Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao 2, if Oscar wins it would be one of the greatest comeback stories in boxing and it would show people that his loss to Pacquiao was a fluke.
Big time boxing fan. Grew up in East Los, and been an avid follower of the sport and the legends like Julio Cesar Chavez, Vicente Saldivar, Salvador Sanchez, Carlos Zarate, Erik Morales, Ricardo Lopez and Juan Manuel Marquez just to name a few.
Current favorite boxers: Canelo Alvarez, Mikey Garcia.