Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have had their share of battles, in and out of the ring before. But seeing that both have long retired, the mental warfare continues and the media are the channels to blow it out in the open.
After Mayweather took that swipe at De La Hoya for featuring Ronda Rousey on Ring Magazine, De La Hoya strikes back with a lengthy letter published on the December issue of Playboy Magazine.
The Golden Boy Promotions CEO took multiple jabs at Mayweather, praising him for his 49–0 record, although it was pretty clear he was mocking the undefeated American boxer.
De La Hoya even included the Manny Pacquiao fight, saying that he should have fought the Filipino boxer five years ago and not five months ago. As everyone knows, Mayweather won that fight handily, although the case would have been different had Mayweather fought a younger and hungrier Pacquiao.
Then there is, of course, the favorite of them all — the celebrated selection of Andre Berto as his final opponent. It was the easy way to go out and was evidently one of the most boring fights on paper.
In all, De La Hoya believes that boxing would be better without Mayweather in it since it will no longer have a fighter who is afraid to take chances. Apparently, this was tied up with the May 2 fight with Pacquiao which De La Hoya believes pushed through only because Pacquiao was softer compared to how he was during his prime.
He proudly says toward the end that he took chances and lost. But the bottom line is that he wanted to deliver the best, something that Golden Boy Promotions is committed to delivering.
The lengthy letter takes serious shots at Mayweather, something that he may not be able to unfortunately dodge unless he responds to it. By all accounts, it would not be surprising if Mayweather does counter-punch with a statement of his own.
