By: Sean Crose
Despite what one may say, there’s no arguing that Oscar De La Hoya was featured in some enormous events back in his day. The fighter known as the “Golden Boy” was even in what at the time was the most watched pay per view fight in history, when he fought Floyd Mayweather back in 2007. Suffice to say, the legendary boxer turned major promoter was not impressed with boxing’s latest mega event – Mike Tyson’s less than impressive brawl last week against social media star turned boxer Jake Paul. In fact, De La Hoya made it clear that the bout was an exercise in utility.
“Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul was by its nature a horrible fight right from the start.. It was just awful, said De La Hoya via Instagram. “Mike almost fell down during his walk up and he was on quicksand since the first 10 seconds of the fight. Oh, and did you see that 58-year-old ass?” De La Hoya moved on to discussing a serious matter regarding the bout. “Now everybody is talking about how staged this fight was. I do believe it was scripted and I believe that Tyson was certainly held back.” A bold thing to say, but the former pound for pound great seemed to believe what he was saying.
“Look,” he said, “I’m a fighter and I can see it. It goes on their record and it was sanctioned. Jake Paul paid to get the ‘W’ on his record! For what? For your own personal satisfaction? I keep telling you, if you want to be a real fighter like you say you want to be, what are you doing? Whose next? Joe Biden? You have to fight real fighters.” De La Hoya went on to compare the sport of boxing to a hibernating bear. “Boxing has been in hibernation,” he said. “It’s like a sleeping bear. Boxing has been the most popular sport since the beginning of time. Lately it’s been Mayweather vs McGregor, who fought in the ring, not the octagon, because boxing is king.”
As far was De La Hoya was concerned, boxing can live up to expectations if fighters would simply square off. “We have to get our shit together,” De La Hoya said. “Fighters are not daring to be great and we are stuck accepting mediocre fights.” It’s an assertion most serious boxing fans would likely agree with. Still, there was one positive that De La Hoya found on the Tyson-Jake card.
“The fight drew 65 million households,” he said, “which means roughly 200 million eyeballs were watching and the huge winners were Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor, who put on an incredible, real fight and were introduced to new fans around the world.”