By P.H. Burbridge (A voice in the crowd) – Well, here we are late August and Oscar De La Hoya is still playing his cat and mouse game over who his final ring opponent will be on Dec 6th! One thing is crystal clear. Oscar has NO intention of fighting anyone who has the SLIGHTEST chance of beating him. I made the mistake of believing Oscar cared about his legacy as well as what fight fans thought BUT that was clearly a mistake on my part..
The truth is much simpler. Oscar wants a “retirement party” not a retirement fight. Meaning he doesn’t want to have to FIGHT on Dec 6th 2008. He wants a “party” with a bunch of feel good moments and here’s the best part, HE WANTS US TO FOOT THE BILL! My problem with that is that when I authorize the cable people to charge me that $49.95 or in this case most probably $54.95 for a fight, I actually want to see a FIGHT! I don’t think I’m alone on that one!
Earlier in the month I wrote an article which really got some people going that basically outlined why I felt Oscar De La Hoya’s choice of Manny Pacquiao as his final ring opponent was a complete slap in the face to real fight fans and I stand by that article. This is no slight on Manny because I enjoy watching Manny separate Featherweights, Jr Lightweights and Lightweights from their senses as much as the next guy but asking him to jump up to Welterweight to fight a guy who has fought as high as Middleweight is purely and simply a “MONEY MOVE”. There’s no competition there! No one can convince me that Oscar couldn’t go through Manny in less then 2 minutes if he put his mind and left hook to it. I was somewhat optimistic when I heard that De La Hoya was seriously considering Sergio Mora as an alternative to Manny but as more and more reports surfaced it’s clear that Oscar doesn’t really want that fight because #1 no one knows who Sergio Mora is outside of the real fight fans and #2 Sergio might actually slap Oscar around for 12 rounds. So, here we are back to square one and the realization that De La Hoya couldn’t care less what real fight fans think about his “showdown” with Pacquiao. De La Hoya knows that Pacquiao’s fan base is huge and thusly will translate to a big $$ PPV buy rate. That’s all he cares about. He’ll find a way to make that fight happen and leave Mora not to mention Margarito out in the cold. Although I’m extremely pleased with Margarito’s decision to move forward with a rematch with Joshua Clottey I could have waited for that fight in order to see Antonio Margarito finally get a real money fight and another high profile win against the Golden Boy. It just seemed like that fight was right for boxing. It also seemed to have the potential to become a financial blockbuster so I knew Oscar couldn’t reject it on those terms as I’m sure he’ll use as grounds to pass over “The Latin Snake”.
Okay, Oscar I guess I can understand you’re hesitancy in getting in the ring with the Tijuana Tornado. I know you could probably outbox him for 4-5 rounds and make it look easy while you did it but you know as well as everyone else that after round #6 it wouldn’t be about your jab or your “half hook/half uppercut” anymore. It would be about you “trying” to make it to the finish line and “hoping” that the judges “give” you the benefit of the doubt based on your early success. That’s the “optimistic” scenario BUT certainly not the one I would expect to play out. If you did “man up” and give Margarito a shot I think Tony blows the first 3 rounds against you just trying to be cute and enjoying the big event. After that he gets down to business by DESTROYING the right side of your rib cage with his left hook. Over and over again! Jogging over to you round after round, break after break to start and restart the combat over and over again and I would also expect him to reach into his bag of dirty tricks like the holding and the hitting, the hitting behind the head and my personal favorite the “ELBOW INSIDE” just to make sure you stayed in line. Frankly, I’d expect that he would just flat out manhandle you from one corner of the ring to the other so by the end of the fight NO ONE could doubt his victory. From your perspective as far as the judges are concerned, it would be pretty tough for you to flash that “golden smile” if you don’t have any LIPS! I wouldn’t expect Tony to knock you out. I know that you have a solid chin and I know that once you got in there with him that you would find SOME way to survive. I’ll give you credit for that although I’ll never be able to justify giving you that credit first hand!! For all I know “HE MIGHT KNOCK YOU OUT”! But, I guess you’ve already gone through all of this in your head and with your people. So, to save face this week you’ll just tell the press that you won’t fight any “Mexican’s who were born in the year of 1978”! Or maybe any “Puerto Rican’s taller then 5 ft 6 in” or whatever far out statement you want to make that you’ll contradict a few days later. Go right ahead but give us a break on the racial stuff! You won’t fight any Puerto Rican’s because your wife asked you not to??!!?? WHAT? You won’t fight any Mexican’s because of the firestorm of criticism you took after you beat a SMALLER older Chavez??!!?? WHAT? Stop!! Thanks for treating the fans who have made you rich beyond not only your own dreams but ANYONES wildest dreams like a bunch of MORONS.
Also, thanks for spitting in Margarito’s face like a real Champ. And although you may not care about your legacy I’m sure he cares about his so when all is said and done let the record show that YOU came up with one BS excuse after another to deprive fight fans of a legitimate blockbuster so you could beat up on another in A LONG LINE of smaller fighters.
That’s YOUR legacy!