If British super middleweight Carl Froch is the will he/won’t he retire guy, then Mexican-American modern great and Hall of Fame inductee Oscar De La Hoya is fast becoming the will he/won’t he come back guy – with another new twist in the saga emerging from multiple sources that are quoting the Golden Boy as saying that any comeback is now 50/50.
After being linked to a potential fight with Kazakh puncher Gennady Golovkin and also a rematch with Floyd Mayweather, De La Hoya took to Instagram to quash those rumours – however, it is looking like the now 42 year old Oscar has had something of a change of heart.
He told ESPN;
“I have to make sure I am fighting the very best. It’s got to be worth my while but this is very serious. I don’t have to come back for financial reasons, or for the lights and glamour. The only reason I would come back is because I miss the competition of fighting the very best.”
“I feel amazing in my life right now – I have so much motivaiton. I am so hungry and so determined. My plan long term is Golden Boy – with me personally, my family, my business. I am young, I am healthy and I feel great. 42 is the new 32.”
Referencing the troubles that he has had with drink and drugs following retirement, that led to those horrendously embarrassing cross-dressing photos and two stints in rehab, he said;
“Right now I feel the best I have in my life physically, mentally, emotionally because I haven’t touched alcohol in I don’t know how long. I’m training, I feel great but it has to be worth my while.”
De La Hoya retired shortly after his defeat to Manny Pacquiao in December 2008, so it would be 7 long years that he has been inactive for, should a comeback happen. Although perhaps his final comments were the most telling;
“Would I do it? I don’t know but I wake up every morning thinking I can. I think about Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler. If (SRL) could do it, why can’t I? So you never know – but at the same time I wish the time flies by so I don’t have to come back.”
Should De La Hoya really be entertaining the idea of a return to the ring? If he felt old and that his body wouldn’t do what he wanted after Pacquiao back in ’08, I don’t see how living “The Bernard Hopkin’s” life of fitness and conditioning as he puts it, will have made much of a difference now. Hopkins is a one off in that regard, although in fairness to De La Hoya, many aging fighters have continued earlier successes after coming back – most notably perhaps, a 45 year old George Foreman, who beat Michael Moorer in 1994 for the WBA world heavyweight title.
