LAS VEGAS ? This was supposed to be Oscar De La Hoya’s swan song, the final fight of his career.
But a predictable fork in the road on his way to retirement emerged, and De La Hoya, like so many punch drunk fighters before him, has reneged on his promise to hang up the gloves and put on his promoter’s hat for good.
The difference, though, is De La Hoya is not shot, hanging onto faded glory like the sad figures Muhammad Ali, Julio Cesar Chavez and Bobby Chacon became.
Instead, the erstwhile Golden Boy, 35, still is the boxing game’s brightest star and biggest draw on the eve of his match with boxing’s pound-for-pound king, Manny Pacquiao, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
“Oh, it’s an event,” Sacramento promoter Don Chargin, who has worked for De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions since 2001, said Friday. “With Oscar, you get these kinds of things with his fights. You have other fighters that can draw ? Ricky Hatton with the Brits ? but not like Oscar. Mark my words: If Oscar wins and faces Hatton, they will draw 100,000 people to Wembley Stadium.
“Boxing needs these kinds of events, and before, you could get by with a good heavyweight fight. But you can’t say that anymore.”
Not with the formerly most glamorous division in the game as dry as the Southern Nevada desert.
Of the top 10 pay-per-view fights, De La Hoya is the only non-heavyweight constantly in the mix, including the record 2.4 million buys for his fight with Floyd Mayweather in May 2007. The De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad match from September 1999 ranks seventh.
Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, De La Hoya’s first promoter before an acrimonious split, has said his former charge is risking health and well-being by continuing to fight.
But as a draw? “He is the top draw in boxing, absolutely,” said Arum, who gets along fine with De La Hoya now. And, it should be pointed out, Top Rank is co-promoting the bout, as Arum is Pacquiao’s promoter.
“The sport of boxing should be very grateful for Oscar De La Hoya,” Arum said. “He brings in a demographic that no other fighter can draw from. People that normally don’t follow boxing are there for an Oscar fight. That enables the (pay-per-view and ticket sales) numbers to be appreciably higher than any other boxer can generate.
“He has no equal.”
It’s a burgeoning demographic that the crossover Latino star born of Mexican immigrant parents with an intrinsically American story, movie star good looks, an Olympic gold medal and 10 world titles in six weight classes has long cultivated.
Who else could recruit comedian George Lopez to emcee Friday’s weigh-in and have him wildly entertain the crowd of about 3,000 with what amounted to a stand-up act?
“It’s trippy how Filipinos are all the same height,” Lopez said. “The dudes and the chicks.”
And when reciting De La Hoya’s championship r?sum?, Lopez said he has been in more weight classes “than Oprah” and that “Mexicans call that a repeat offender.”
This was when Lopez was not keeping the crowd in stitches by threatening to kick Arum’s, ahem, backside.
An event, indeed.
With Pacquiao, so beloved in his native Philippines he has been declared a national treasure, the fight promises to be more than an event; it should be a bona fide fight.
“He’s a legend in boxing, so it’s my honor to fight him,” Pacquiao said. “It’s a big test to do the fight because the honor I can bring my country.”
Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 knockouts) weighed in at a career-high 142 pounds.
De La Hoya (39-5, 30) weighed 145, his lightest since Jan. 18, 1997, when he decisioned Miguel Angel Gonzalez at 140.
Yet while Pacquiao has a country backing him, De La Hoya is carrying an entire sport on his aging shoulders, though he insists age is nothing but a number.
“As long as I can continue to not make a fool of myself, then I’m going to continue to lace up the gloves,” he said. “I’m in a position where I don’t have to fight anymore. I’ve established myself and I’ve positioned myself to enter the sunset and be happy, (but) it’s like ‘The Godfather’ movie ? they just keep bringing me back.
“But it’s the fighter’s fault ? there has to be an exit strategy. And my exit strategy is right around the corner.”
The sweet science holds its breath.
“Boxing needs him because after a series of events that drew pretty badly, he now comes on the scene and everybody’s going crazy,” Arum said. “The trick is, how do you bottle that up and draw without him?
“Nobody has figured out how to do it.”
