04/23/24
December 09, 2008
Writer: Oscar De La Hoya 'Never Truly Great': "Oscar De La Hoya was a very good fighter, but throughout his career he has never lived up to the hype," John Rawling argues in The Guardian. "He was a great interviewee, photogenic and, to his credit, he never ducked anybody."
Never been a huge fan. Don't really have a good reason. I had hoped for a better fight on Saturday, but I really didn't get why De La Hoya was such a favorite, even with the weightclass.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 06:35 PM on December 10, 2008
I liked the "Golden Boy" early on in his career, but he long ago became more enamored with the money aspect of boxing than the fights themselves. By starting his own promotions, involvement with The Contender (series on ESPN), he always seemed more interested in being on the outside looking in.
Only problem with that is that he could have been really good if he would have trained harder and had more heart. I felt that he tanked it in a couple of his last fights.
To get beat is one thing, but to not put up a good fight is completely something else. I thought he never threw enough punches in fights with better oponents. He would routinely get hit too often, and never let loose with his punches.
Definately time to call it quits in the ring and just become another Don King outside of it.
posted by Mickster at 10:06 AM on December 11, 2008
As a life-long De La Hoya hater, I was more than surprised to see him lose to Pacquiao. I thought with Pacquiao moving up to two weight classes, De La Hoya would be more powerful and more fluid than Pacquiao but that was just not the case. Pac-Man just wanted it more and showed the world why in fact he is the best pound for pound fighter. De La Hoya is past his prime and needs to finally hang up the gloves like he said he would if he lost and stick to being a promotor or singer or whatever the hell he wants to be since he is no longer a fighter.
posted by BornIcon at 07:52 AM on December 12, 2008
Lets all just pray there is Never another Don "The Killer" King involved in boxing ever again, or any other sport for that matter!
I find it very difficult to agree with what the writer, John Rawling, says about De La Hoya in this article. Especially the "throught his career he has never lived up to the hype" statement. De La Hoya has beat 17 World Champions in 6 different weight classes. His professional record is 39-6, with 30 KO's. Of those 6 losses only 2 of them did not go 12 rounds. One went 8 the other went 9. His amateur record is 223-6 with 163 KO's
While doing the above he has also become the wealthiest boxer of all time, earning a whoping $664.3 million in PPV revenue alone. His promoting business doesn't look like it is going bad either.
People just don't do these things with out "ever living up to the hype," at least once. Sounds to me like Oscar must have cost him some money or something!
posted by jojomfd1 at 12:14 PM on December 12, 2008
I find it very difficult to agree with what the writer, John Rawling, says about De La Hoya in this article. Especially the "throught his career he has never lived up to the hype" statement..
Maybe I'm in the minority but since I am a self-confessed De La Hoya-hater, don't take what I say too seriously.
I actually agree with what John Rawlings said, Oscar just never really captivated my attention like some of the great boxers of my era. I loved watching "Sugar" Ray Leonard. Same goes for: "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Julio Ceaser Chavez, Hector "Macho" Camacho and my personal favorite boxer of all time, "Iron" Mike Tyson. De La Hoya just wasn't my cup of tea for whatever reason and reasons that I cannot explain.
I will always agree that he is one of the best fighters to ever lace up the gloves but to be honest, I just wanted him to get beat so bad all the times he fought. There was never any real reason as to why I didn't like De Le Hoya, I just didn't. It just seemed to me as if he fought some fighters when they no longer could put up the kind of fights that they were capable of during their prime and that's when he sought them out, but that's just my opinion.
In closing, I agree that De La Hoya is a Hall of Fame boxer for what he accomplished and I respect him for that but I just don't like the guy.
posted by BornIcon at 01:38 PM on December 12, 2008
I couldn't agree more!