It appears Golden Boy top brass Oscar De La Hoya is joining the "come-out-of-retirement" party, confirming reports that he will jump back in training in the next few weeks. De La Hoya confirmed rumors of a potential ring return when he told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated of his plans to return to the ring.
“The rumors are true,” De La Hoya said, “and I’m going to start training in the next few weeks.”
Assuming the 47-year-old De La Hoya stays the course, it would be the first fight of his career since 2008. It was on Dec. 6, 2008 when De La Hoya lost to Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao in the eighth round. He took quite a beating from the Pac-Man, someone who was on the rise.
That fight took a lot out of De La Hoya who even said at that time that his heart still wants to fight but could not physically respond, the NY Daily News reported at the time.
Since then, rumors of a ring return by De La Hoya continued to persist. But so far, it is only now where the Golden Boy chief seems determined to go through with it. And based on his interview with ESPN, it seems he is not settling for an exhibition fight. He wants a real fight and is open to facing anybody - including Canelo Alvarez.
"It's a real fight," he said. "I miss being in the ring, I love boxing. Boxing is what gave me everything I have today, and I just miss it."
Adding Alvarez to the list of possible opponents may sound like De La Hoya is pushing his luck a bit too far. But it appears he is so pumped that he feels he still has a lot of zing behind his punches.
“Look, it’s been a long time, yes,” De La Hoya said. “But actually, my jab feels faster than ever. I have to make sure that my conditioning is perfect, my health is good. And that’s going to take place in the next few weeks. So, we’ll see.”
Confirming that he will be returning to the ring is one thing. But setting a clash is another. For now, there are a lot of names likely to be suggested. Alvarez has been suggested but it would not come as a surprise if Pacquiao or even Floyd Mayweather Jr. is mentioned. However, that may only come to fruition if there is big money involved.
