Floyd Mayweather’s rather anti-climactic exit from boxing left a few of the sport’s legends with a bad taste in their mouths, namely Oscar De La Hoya. Taking to Twitter during Mayweather’s final bout against Andre Berto, the Mexican-American former boxing star openly expressed his disappointment in Mayweather’s send-off. In a recent interview with Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning, De La Hoya took things a step further by saying the sport will be better in the post-Floyd era.
“This is the fight game. The fans wanna see knockouts. The fans wanna see great action. You want to be able to entertain the fans, and have them on the edge of their seats, screaming and yelling. I remember as a kid watching Julio Cesar Chavez, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson, those were fights. And so, we want to bring that back.”
Back in 2007, Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya had their first and only fight, and the undefeated, now-retired champion was the victor by split decision in 12 rounds. This summer, Mayweather attempted to get De La Hoya back in the ring for a rematch, but the Golden Boy Promotions boss had not interest in returning to boxing. Though De La Hoya maintains better days for the sport ahead, he notes that he respects Mayweather as one of the best defensive fighters in recent history.
“Don’t get me wrong, I respect Floyd for what he’s done, and he’s undefeated. He’s a great talent and by far one of the best defensive boxers that we’ve seen in recent times. But I like the action. I like the knockout. I like people to talk about boxing on the weekends.”
Watch Oscar De La Hoya discuss Floyd Mayweather and his Golden Boy Promotions company in the video below:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=X4vhsHkn0Xs%3Frel%3D0