SAN JOSE ? The boos rained down.
Like a slew of Manny Pacquiao jabs.
Like a Floyd Mayweather flurry.
Like a Bernard Hopkins punch to the liver.
Oscar De La Hoya, once the most popular boxer in the world, owner of 10 world titles in six different weight classes, was jeered vociferously at HP Pavilion on Saturday night when introduced to the crowd of 6,765 as the 11-bout card’s promoter.
It was shocking. It was classless. It was to be expected.
“I don’t know, man,” said De La Hoya’s right-hand man, Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Eric Gomez. “I guess they don’t like the losing. I don’t know. He lost the (Pacquiao) fight; that’s it.
“He’s still a great champion and he still has a great number of people that love him.”
Indeed. Witness the line of people eager to press flesh with him, to take pictures with him, to get his autograph.
Thing is, De La Hoya was booed even more rabidly last week in Houston, taking in the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz fight.
It’s not just that De La Hoya, 39-6 with 30 knockouts and a gold medal in the 1992 Olympics, has lost two of his last three bouts, three of his last five and four of his last seven. It’s the nature of the defeats.
Pacquiao, a significantly smaller man, albeit, the baddest little man on the planet, demolished the Golden Boy on Dec. 6 so utterly that De La Hoya admitted he hoped to be knocked out, put out of his misery. Alas, the bout was stopped after the eighth round, with no protest from De La Hoya.
On May 5, 2007, De La Hoya ran out of gas against Mayweather, losing a split decision.
And Sept. 18, 2004, a ninth-round punch to the liver from the much larger Hopkins felled De La Hoya, who pounded the canvas in frustration as he was counted out.
The Golden Boy has rarely, if ever, been booed on neutral turf, which Northern California most assuredly is. To what does it all add up? De La Hoya has to either stay out of the ring for good to avoid further damage, both to his reputation and his overall health and continue promoting quality cards. Or, and this is the sobering part, he has to climb back in it to restore some luster to that old Golden Boy shine.
“What’s next is to make that final decision,” De La Hoya told me, shaking his head. “It’s very difficult to really come out with a conclusion. But hopefully I’m getting near and I think I’ll make the right one very soon.”
Any timetable?
“Ugh,” he said with a nervous laugh, “I can’t put one (on that decision).”
There are no good fights for a fighter who looked shot against Pacquiao, only intriguing ones that border on Tyson-esque sideshows.
I’ve said De La Hoya meeting Tito Trinidad to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of their epic bout would be interesting, since that’s when the legend of Chicken De La Hoya was born, what with his running the last few rounds.
More fascinating ? drawing 100,000 to Azteca Stadium to meet Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (38-0-1), who was 10 when his legendary father’s face was pureed by De La Hoya in 1996. Think W. going after Saddam as revenge for his father.
De La Hoya’s been booed lately? Imagine the response he’d get in Mexico City. He’d need the Popemobile to get in and out of the ring.
At least they couldn’t boo De La Hoya the promoter.
