De La Hoya to go out swinging in golden year
LOS ANGELES - Oscar De La Hoya hasn't fought much in recent years, and there's only so much time he can spend in the office tending to business matters. So he's had time, and lots of it, to plan for a future that doesn't include the risk of his handsome face being rearranged by a wayward punch.
At home in Puerto Rico, he discussed retirement with his wife, who had no problem with him quitting boxing. His father was even more eager to sign on, since he thought De La Hoya should have retired after stopping Fernando Vargas nearly six years ago.
That left one other person to convince. He proved to be the biggest hurdle of all.
"I'm the stubborn one," De La Hoya said. "I think I can still do this, and it makes me want to keep doing it."
At the age of 35, he won't be doing it much longer, assuming he sticks to a plan he carefully crafted to say goodbye to a career that has made him the richest and most successful fighter of his time. And that's a big assumption, considering De La Hoya is a fighter and fighters rarely know when to quit.
But he insists boxing fans will see the last of him this year in a series of three fights beginning with his bout tonight against light-hitting Steve Forbes.
De La Hoya will be helped along the way with a nice retirement package that includes a fat bank account, an office tower he owns in Los Angeles, and a thriving boxing promotion business. He also owns Spanish language newspapers, Ring magazine, and a healthy portion of the Houston Dynamo soccer team, among other things. And then there's the $50 million or more he'll pocket this year, with most of it coming from a planned September fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. that will be the rematch of the richest fight ever.
Although Forbes is a decent fighter who once held the 130-pound title and lost in the final of the "Contender" reality series, De La Hoya is a 17-1 favorite to win the scheduled 12-round fight, which has a 150-pound contract limit, and stay on course for his September megafight rematch with Mayweather. De La Hoya had to remove his socks to make the weight yesterday after initially weighing in a half-pound over the limit, Reuters reported.
