During this video interview with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV, Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya talks about his plans to return to boxing in September and where he’s looking to go from there. De La Hoya talks about the first of three fights he’s planning to have and says his endgame could be fighting the best in the world at that time. Check out some excerpts of what De La Hoya had to say below.
De La Hoya on why he’s choosing to make a comeback to boxing
“It’s love for the sport, basically. I love boxing, I love what I did and I love what I’m doing now. And more importantly I’m doing it for myself, that’s the whole motivation for myself. It’s a different psyche, it’s different, and I don’t think anybody will understand it. There might be one fighter out there that maybe can understand it and his name is Mike Tyson. I’m just believing that I need to do this for myself.
On what he wants to prove to himself
“That everything that I accomplished, everything I’ve done inside the ring whether it’s win, whether it’s lose, whether it’s facing every single type of competition out there that’s the toughest, whether it’s winning a gold medal, 10 world titles — whatever it is I want to prove to myself that I can do it for myself and that I’m not doing it for anybody else but myself. So it’s a whole different mentality.”
On if he’s felt lost without boxing
“Well there’s one thing about missing boxing and being inside the ring and missing the limelight, missing the people, the fans — that’s one thing. But then there’s another thing of missing your passion, missing that one thing that is still out there that you haven’t accomplished, that you haven’t reached yet. And for me it’s like literally like brand new, what I’m trying to reach for, what I’m trying to do here is brand new to me. I still don’t realize what that exact feeling is gonna be like until I step into the ring September 11 so in the meantime what I’m doing is training different, doing it differently, focus differently, everything’s different.”
On what his endgame is
“I think as long as my body feels like doing it, yeah. I think as long as my mind is capable. It all depends on the body, it all depends on how you feel and I’ve always been one to fight the best and maybe the endgame is fighting the best, whoever the best is there at that particular time. My plan has always been to do three fights. Mentally, physically I’m going to be as prepared as possible to get to those three fights and then we’ll see what happens.”
On if he sees a path to fighting Canelo as he’s previously mentioned
“I mean look, in the scope of things it’s like ‘okay, maybe it can’ but it’s like ‘why not?’ He’s the best out there, I’ve fought the best. I’ve actually fought way better than that so it’s like ‘yeah, he’s the best now, today, but yesterday the best was a lot better,’ and I’ve fought everybody. So the fact that something can lead up to that, with me and Canelo, why not? And if people want to see me knocked out then tune in. If you think I can beat him, tune in. I’ve never been in a boring fight, I never dodged anybody, I never been in there and only throw three punches a round. If you want to see boring or you want to see exciting, you choose.”