Óscar de la Hoya ready to challenge Canelo

Oscar de la Hoya is serious about returning to fighting, and if all goes well with his plans at 48 years of age, his ultimate goal is a bout against his former pupil and now rival outside the ring: Canelo Alvarez.

De la Hoya said in an interview with A Los Golpes that his plan to return to the ring on September 11 against an MMA fighter is not only still on track, but is the first step in his goal of fighting twice in 2021 before challenging Canelo or Floyd Mayweather for a Cinco de Mayo date in 2022.

“The plan is to make one fight in September and make another in November” detailed De la Hoya. “Then on Cinco de Mayo in 2022 to challenge the best boxer in the world which is Mayweather and if he doesn’t want to give me a rematch, to challenge Canelo Alvarez.”

“If they’re going to mother me, let the best one mother me.”

De la Hoya announced in March that his return to the ring would be with Triller, who made waves recently with one-off fights like Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren and the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr. exhibition. The Mexican-American was one of boxing’s biggest attractions during his heyday, not to mention a six-division champion and Olympic gold medalist.

De la Hoya, head of Golden Boy Promotions and in charge of guiding Alvarez’s career for more than 10 years before an acrimonious divorce that sparked a cold war between the two that continues today, doesn’t see it as a major risk to step into the ring with the current No. 1-ranked boxer in ESPN’s pound-for-pound rankings.

“No, I don’t see it as a risk. ‘Do you think Canelo is going to knock me out? I have a good jaw,'” he said, smiling. “Styles make the fight and my jab nobody can block it.”

“I know it’s dangerous, but the reality is that I feel great, both physically and mentally. My last fight was with Manny Pacquiao [in 2008], but it was at 144 pounds and I couldn’t do anything, I looked like a very weak skeleton,” he recounted of the loss he suffered to the Filipino in 2008 that left his current record at 39-6.

“Now I’m at 175, I feel very good about everything. I’d like to think I spent 14 years resting my body, my mind. Now I feel faster than ever. I swear I have a faster and stronger jab than any fighter today,” he said.

However, the ‘Golden Boy’ is clear on the challenge of returning to compete in the ring at a high level, making it clear what he thinks about recent exhibitions such as Mayweather’s against YouTuber Logan Paul.

“I don’t agree with these exhibitions, I mean yes it’s nice, people want to see their favorite figures like Chavez and Travieso Arce, but I’m not here to make an exhibition. I want to fight,” he emphasized. “And yes, I’m going to fight a UFC fighter who was world champion and weighs 40 pounds more than me, but what I want is to put on a show. I want there to be knockouts, I want it to be a show, because the truth is that I miss him a lot.”

“If I don’t think I can do this, I’m not going to do it. But the fact that I think I can do it, that my body is responding very well, that’s why I want to do these two fights first and then do the strong one. If I don’t look good in these two fights, I’m not going to do it,” he added.

“And if I get knocked out, I get knocked out, no way. There are a lot of people who want to see me knocked out.”

De la Hoya also emphasized that the economic factor does not play a role in his comeback, starting with his planned September bout against 44-year-old MMA fighter Vitor Belfort, a former UFC light heavyweight champion.

“I love it, I miss it [boxing]. Not a day goes by that I’m not thinking about knocking out or getting punched. It’s my life, it’s what I know, it’s what I love most in life,” he admitted. “I made over 800 million in my career, I’m not doing it for the money. I’m doing it because I truly love and miss the sport.”

For now, before thinking about 2022 and Canelo or Mayweather, De la Hoya is only thinking about September and his fight against Befort, who owns the most knockouts in UFC history (12) and has a 1-0 record as a professional fighter; he hasn’t fought in MMA since 2018.

“I’m mentally scheduled to fight on Sept. 11 to kick off the homecoming festivities in Las Vegas. It’s not going to be a fight, it’s going to be a spectacular event,” he concluded.