Brawling Hurts the Sweet Science

02/03/201402/02/2014 Paul Strauss

“Gentlemen, come out fighting at the bell.” For years we’ve heard that or similar invitations made to two boxers, not two brawlers. When it’s the latter, the public is turned off and turns away from the sport. Ideally, brawling has no place in the sport; although, it’s always been there. In fact, some of boxing’s most popular and colorful boxers weren’t above fracturing a rule or ten. Guys like Harry Greb, Fritzie Zivic, Sandy Saddler, and Two Ton Tony Galento. The modern day list holds more than just a few. We won’t offend individuals by naming them. The truth is some of the best of our current crop of greats, such as Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Bernard Hopkins, and Andre Ward aren’t above cleverly using elbows, forearms, a glove behind the head pulling a man off balance, and the good old noggin. The difference is the men have many other skills to bring about a victory.

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De La Hoya, Trinidad and Calzaghe all headed into The Hall of Fame – all three greats fully deserving of the honour

12/05/201312/04/2013 James Slater

de la hoya464588 The list of the next great fighters (and writers, promoters, photographers, etc) set to enter The Hall of Fame has been announced. To the dismay of absolutely nobody, ring greats Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad and Joe Calzaghe head the newest inductees.

The special Hall of Fame weekend will take place next June and all three retired greats are sure to be there to make speeches and meet and greet the fans. Also to be inducted are: Barry Hearn, promoter, Richard Steele, referee, Graham Houston, writer, and Neil Leifer, photographer. Also to be inducted are: George Chaney, Charles Ledoux and Mike O’Dowd in the old-timers category, and Tom Allen in the pioneers category.

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Boxing Hall Of Fame: Class of 2014 Announced in Canastota!

12/05/201312/04/2013 Boxing Hall of Fame

jpeg jpeg The International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum announced today the newest class of inductees to enter the Hall. Living inductees include two division champion “The Pride of Wales” Joe Calzaghe, six division world champion “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya and three division champion Felix “Tito” Trinidad in the Modern category; promoter Barry Hearn, referee Richard Steele, journalist Graham Houston and photographer Neil Leifer.

“We’re extremely excited about the Class of 2014 and are very much looking forward to honoring the 25th class of inductees,” said Executive Director Edward Brophy.

The 25th Annual Hall of Fame Weekend is scheduled for June 5-8th in Canastota, NY. Over 20 events, including a golf tournament, banquet, parade and autograph card show, are planned. An impressive celebrity lineup of boxing greats of yesterday and today will attend this year’s Induction Weekend.

The highlight of the weekend will be the Official Enshrinement Ceremony on the Hall of Fame Museum Grounds in Canastota, New York on Sunday, June 8th to welcome the newest members.

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Oscar De La Hoya- love, hate

09/21/2013 Mr. Pennington

Oscar De La Hoya, one of my favorite fighters in recent memory. That guy had the whole tool box, but also had the fearlessness to be great. I enjoyed watching Oscar over his career; he took on every tough opponent that was there to fight. Oscar had the total package, for those of us who like a display of skills, Oscar provided that. For those who like fights with the very best in the sport facing off in their known primes, Oscar also gave us that. I can’t think of a fighter he may have ducked, I can’t think of a fight where he didn’t give the fans what they wanted. In my estimation, these are traits of a fighter that anyone could be proud of. But when it comes to Oscar, I never felt the Mexican community totally embraced him, and I’ve always wondered why.

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The Pound for Pound Picasso Exposes Oscar’s Blueprint… Again!

09/17/201309/16/2013 Chip Mitchell

floyd623 Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr put to rest any belief in Oscar De la Hoya’s so called blueprint designed to beat him. The 36 year old Mayweather appears to be like a fine wine, getting better with age as he dominated Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on Saturday night.

In typical fashion, Floyd appeared to take his time in the early rounds to gauge his opponent’s game plan. From then on, the fight was a technical mismatch as the teacher (Mayweather) took the pupil (Alvarez) to school round after round.

In the end, Mayweather was awarded a majority decision. Scores were 117-111 (Craig Metcalfe), 116-112 (Dave Moretti), and the atrocious 114-114 card turned in by the infamous C.J. Ross (seen here boxrec.com/media/index.php/C.J._Ross). I had the fight scored 118-110.

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Oscar De La Hoya voluntarily misses “The One” – a bizarre publicity stunt or a necessary urgent measure?

09/12/201309/11/2013 Ivan Ivanov

Canelo and Oscar Oscar De La Hoya has stolen the lime light from Floyd Mayweather and Saul Alvarez for a moment by going public with his personal demons and choosing a climatic stage of the hype to “drop his bomb”. What kind of an emergency could not wait for several days and prevented him from attending an event of such magnitude? Has he become so dysfunctional that he has to be removed from the scene as a liability to the joint venture? Was there an “intervention”?

He is the owner and founder of Golden Boy Promotions and even if he has only representative status at the company, he is hardly expendable. Even if his attendance at the Sept. 14 card is not of vital importance, his absence will be very conspicuous. The internal conflict transpires even in the press release where a public announcement calls for privacy in a vocally publicized personal dilemma.

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Oscar De La Hoya making a lot of pre-fight predictions ahead of “The One!”

09/04/2013 James Slater

dela hoya12 It’s always both very interesting and a great honour being a call in participant whenever a big fight is preceded by a teleconference; especially an international one ahead of a massive, massive fight such as the fast approaching Floyd Mayweather-Saul Canelo Alvarez clash. Yesterday, with big name scribes such as Dan Rafael and Lem Satterfield asking Canelo and Oscar De La Hoya questions regarding “The One,” it was hugely exciting being on the line.

I listened to the ESPN.com scribe ask his questions, along with writers for USA Today, Ring Magazine and other instantly recognisable publications, and the thing that struck me most, well actually there were two things – they were: Canelo’s amazing maturity and quiet self confidence, and Oscar De La Hoya’s bold pre-fight predictions.

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De La Hoya: Canelo is on his way to becoming great

07/04/201307/02/2013 Rob Smith

Canelo arrives (Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Without a knockdown and some very generous scoring for his last fight, WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) would have ended up losing his last fight to Austin Trout last April in San Antonio, Texas in their open scoring fight. As it was, Canelo won a fight that looked to be more of a draw than a victory in the minds of a lot boxing fans.

Don’t tell that to Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya, because he feels Canelo is on his way to achieving greatness in his career.

De La Hoya said to the press today “With the help of the people surrounding him, Canelo is on his way to becoming great.”

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De La Hoya doesn’t see Mayweather as having changed from 2007

06/06/2013 Jeff Sorby

mayweather3423 Oscar De La Hoya thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the same fighter now that he was when they fought in 2007. De La Hoya believes Mayweather is still essentially as good as he was back then, but the difference now is he’s fighting who De La Hoya feels is a better fighter than himself in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 14th.

De La Hoya doesn’t know how Mayweather will deal with someone hitting him with six-punch combinations with the kind of power that Canelo throws his punches with.

De La Hoya said to RingTV “When I fought him in 2007, he might be the same Floyd. Fresh, better shape, young, strong, I don’t see any difference. I still see the same movement.”

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De La Hoya: Who do you want to see this super hero [Canelo] fight?

05/20/2013 Rob Smith

canelo22 It looks like Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions is referring to WBA/WBC light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez as a “super hero” now following his controversial 12 round decision win over Austin Trout last month in a fight that Canelo appeared to be greatly helped by the open scoring, as well as some very, very generous scores by the three judges that worked that fight. A super hero that failed to prove that he’s better than Trout.

De La Hoya said tonight on his twitter “Who wants to see this super hero [Canelo]? And with who?”

De La Hoya was immediately bombarded with people saying that Canelo should fight WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and that he should fight someone his own size [172 lbs]. That probably wasn’t the answer that De La Hoya was hoping to get because Golovkin is a fighter that Golden Boy appears to be steering a wide path around him when it comes to matching Canelo up.

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