Oscar De La Hoya completely burns Floyd Mayweather in letter, says boxing is better without the American
Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya is pulling no punches against rival Floyd Mayweather saying in a letter that boxing is better without the “boring” American, who retired from the sport last September.
De La Hoya, a former boxing champion who is considered one of the greatest rivals for Mayweather when both were active fighters, did not hold back in criticising Mayweather in the letter published via playboy.com.
De La Hoya sarcastically opened by mentioning Mayweather’s 49-0 win-loss record during his career and making it sound that it was an empty accomplishment.
“So I’m writing to you today to wish you a fond farewell. Truth be told, I’m not unhappy to see you retire. Neither are a lot of boxing fans. Scratch that. MOST boxing fans. Why? Because the fight game will be a better one without you in it.” De La Hoya stated in the letter, which will appear in the December 2015 issue of the Playboy Magazine.
“Let’s face it: You were boring. Just take a look at your most recent performance, your last hurrah in the ring, a 12-round decision against Andre Berto. How to describe it? A bust? A disaster? A snooze fest? An affair so one-sided that on one judge’s card Berto didn’t win a single round?”
As expected by most boxing analysts and fans pre-fight, Mayweather’s career finale against Berto would be a mismatch and the judges’ scorecards showed how one-sided the bout was with scores of 120-108, 117-111 and 118-110 for Mayweather.
Immediately after the fight, Mayweather announced that he is officially retiring from boxing although Mayweather returned to the sport after his initial retirement in 2008.
De La Hoya wasn’t done critcising Mayweather and mentioned the “Fight of the Century” between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao last May.
“You were afraid. Afraid of taking chances. Afraid of risk. A perfect example is your greatest “triumph,” the long-awaited record-breaking fight between you and Manny Pacquiao. Nearly 4.5 million buys! More than $400 million [scAU $560.9M] in revenue! Headlines worldwide!” De La Hoya added.
“How can that be bad for boxing? Because you lied. You promised action and entertainment and a battle for the ages, and you delivered none of the above. The problem is, that’s precisely how you want it. You should have fought Pacquiao five years ago, not five months ago.”
A year before his first retirement, Mayweather defeated De La Hoya via 12-round split decision victory with scorecards of 116-112 and 115-113 for Mayweather and 115-113 for De La Hoya.
De La Hoya also mentioned the loss to Mayweather in the letter saying that he “barely lost” even when he was at the “tail end of [his] career.”
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