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The top boxing news story this week was Oscar De La Hoya's retirement announcement. It's major news when the greatest ticket seller that the sport has ever seen calls it quits. His fans, often referred to as "golden boys and girls" shed tears, HBO's boxing brass continues its search for an heir apparent, and hungry contenders helplessly watch their dreams of fighting De La Hoya disappear. Simply put, De La Hoya will be missed.
However, what legacy has he left in the ring? At best, De La Hoya will be viewed as a man who competed at a high level in six different weight classes (capturing 10 titles, some of the alphabelt variety) and took on the best fighters of his generation. At worst, he will be viewed as a guy who rarely won his biggest fights and went out as a quitter (on his stool against Manny Pacquiao). I view him somewhere in between. Here's why.
The Hits. De La Hoya's best wins came against two all-time greats in Julio Cesar Chavez (2x) and Pernell "Sweat Pea" Whitaker, and two former champions, Ike Quartey and Fernando Vargas. On the plus side, Oscar can legitimately say that he defeated two Hall of Famer fighters during his career as well as two "at or near-their-prime" titlists in unification bouts. The downside is that both Chavez and Whitaker were "past-their-primes," some felt that "Sweet Pea" actually beat De La Hoya (present company included), Vargas was perceived by many to be a shot fighter after his loss to Felix "Tito" Trinidad, and many believed (present company not included) that he was edged by Quartey in their bout.
The Misses. Felix Trinidad, Shane Mosley (2x), Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao represent the "what if" part of De La Hoya's career. If he had defeated them, we'd be talking about him as one of the top ten boxers of all time. Although he lost to them all, he must be credited for taking on such a challenging list of opponents. Two of these losses are debatable. His disappointing loss to Trinidad was a highly questionable decision. Despite his shameless running in the late rounds of that fight, he clearly out-boxed Trinidad for 2/3 of that fight. He also appeared to do enough in his second loss to Mosley.
Losing to Hopkins and Pacquiao is no shame. However, the manner in which he lost has greatly damaged his reputation. In the Hopkins fight, I felt that he succumbed to Hopkins's physical pressure and was more than content to let that liver shot close the show. In his weight-drained loss to the PacMan, he quit on his stool. This one cuts deepest.
Although contemporaries like Roy Jones, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Bernard Hopkins, Marco Antonio Barrera, and Felix Trinidad accomplished more in the ring, no fighter since Mike Tyson was able to grab the attention of general sports fans the way that De La Hoya did. He took the pretty boy thing started by Sugar Ray Robinson, perfected by Muhammad Ali, and refined by Sugar Ray Leonard to the next level to become boxing's most bankable star ever. And oh yeah, he had one great left hook.
No matter what you think about Oscar De La Hoya, you can not deny that he has helped keep boxing relevant in an age dominated by football, baseball and other combat sports like mixed martial arts. Can boxing survive without its Golden Goose? Yes, as long as it does not try to find the next Golden Boy. To quote Yoda in the second installment of Star Wars, "There is (will be) another." There always is.
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