By Tim Leach: Plenty of wild rumours flying around as the Ricky Hatton/Manny Pacquiao fight finally falls through, but one of the crazier ones is that Oscar De la Hoya might step up as Hatton’s next opponent. It’d be an easy payday for Hatton, but if this rumour has any weight behind it, you have to wonder what De la Hoya is thinking. Perhaps Manny hit Oscar a little too hard when he took him to pieces a month ago, because there’s just no way this sounds like a good idea..
The only defence De la Hoya can offer after that disastrous fight with Manny is that dropping down to welterweight took it out of him. Either he’s an old fighter, a shot fighter, or the drop in weight got him. If he’s old or shot, Hatton will eat him up. If he can’t do his best at welter, Hatton will eat him up. Does he really want to go down to welter again and face that kind of beating? If he couldn’t handle Manny’s speed, you’d think there’s no way he could deal with Hatton’s power.
Oscar’s stuck. He’s too big a name to fight nobodies or easy opponents, but you suspect that he hasn’t got what it takes anymore to win against the top class boxers he’s expected to fight. Maybe he was just weight drained against Manny Pacquiao, and he does have something left to offer…but surely not down at welterweight. You’d suspect a semi-graceful retirement would be the smartest move Oscar could make, or at least a farewell fight against an opponent who was closer to his natural size.
This fight doesn’t make any kind of sense. It’d certainly be a big payday, but Oscar’s got easier ways of making money than getting knocked out by Ricky Hatton.