Posted on 06/22/2021
By: Hans Themistode
Oscar De La Hoya wasn’t kidding around when he said he wanted to make his return to the boxing ring. After spending several months getting his body back into fighting shape, the former six-division world champion is finally ready to place his skills back on display.
First up, is a September matchup against former UFC champion, Vitor Belfort. Should things go the way he’s expecting, De La Hoya wants to move into the next phase of his master plan.
“I want to make the biggest comeback in boxing history,” said De La Hoya during an interview with Chris Mannix on DAZN. “I want to get two of these fights down under my belt and get the timing ready and everything, and then my third one, I want to call out Floyd Mayweather.”
While De La Hoya’s news may have made sports fans giddy, CEO of Mayweather Promotions in Leonard Ellerbe wasn’t amused in the slightest. As for those who are envisioning the two share the ring one more time, Ellerbe shot down all hopes of that ever happening.
“Absolutely not,” said Ellerbe on The Jake Asman Show on SportsMap Radio. “It’ll never happen. There’s zero interest in doing that.”
Following a 2007 split decision loss at the hands of Mayweather, De La Hoya has always been acrimonious towards him. The “Golden Boy” would end his career one year later as he suffered a one-sided eighth-round stoppage defeat at the hands of Manny Pacquiao. As for Mayweather, his career would span another decade. Along the way, he picked up win after win before finishing his career with an undefeated record of 50-0.
While the two haven’t crossed paths since, the pair have thrown verbal haymakers at one another through the media over the years. Mayweather, 44, may have hung up his gloves for good in 2017 but as he put it, “I haven’t retired from making money and entertaining the fans.” That entertainment stretched to his most ring outing.
On June 6th, at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, Mayweather took on social media star turned de-facto boxer, Logan Paul, in an eight-round exhibition. The prevailing thought process heading in was that Mayweather would easily stop the YouTuber before the final bell. That, however, didn’t occur.
Considering that Mayweather appeared to be a shell of his once dominant self, De La Hoya believes that the newly inducted Hall of Famer now has a chip on his shoulder.
“I think Floyd after that exhibition he did with Logan [Paul], I think he feels like he has to prove something once again inside the boxing ring,” said De La Hoya.
While those around the boxing world have criticized Mayweather for his failure to get his man out of there and appearing a step slower, he laughed all the way to the bank as he recorded over one million pay-per-view buys for his showdown against Paul.
With the numbers that Mayweather vs. Paul accumulated, Ellerbe simply believes that De La Hoya is attempting to piggyback off his success.
“Oscar De La Hoya is just trying to use Floyd’s name to build some buzz about whatever he’s attempting to do and nobody’s really paying him any attention.”