Oscar De La Hoya praises Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s skills, heart, strength and business acumen

The mutual dislike between two of the best fighters of the last generation – Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya – existed not only before their superfight in 2007, but continued long afterward.

Although Mayweather fought many times under De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions banner, it is often claimed that Mayweather did so because of his relationship with Richard Schaefer, who was the company’s CEO at the time. When Schaefer and Golden Boy parted ways, Mayweather also ended his relationship with Golden Boy (as did a number of other fighters).

Over the years, De La Hoya was not shy Denigrate MayweatherHe is also Mayweather occasionally complimented. Still, it was a little surprising and also quite refreshing to hear De La Hoya praise Mayweather while speaking with Hall of Fame football player Shannon Sharpe in a recent episode of Club Shay Shay.

“Floyd is a great fighter,” said De La Hoya. He later called Mayweather “one of the best.”

“I love his patience,” De La Hoya said. “I love the fact that he hits hard and has a chin. People criticize him for not having a chin. He has a chin. And he has a big heart. What makes him unique is obviously his boxing ability, but what sets him apart for me is his martial arts in the ring. He knows how to pick his spots. He knows how to wear you out without even throwing a punch. It’s crazy.”

Mayweather defeated De La Hoya by split decision all those years ago. De La Hoya believed at the time that he had done enough to win.

“As a fighter, when you’re in the ring and the final bell rings, you know in your heart, in your gut and physically whether you’ve won or lost. You just feel it. It’s a sensation and I just felt it,” De La Hoya said. “Whether I was wrong or right, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I fought the very best, Floyd Mayweather, younger, at my best, undefeated. And I was over the hill, lots of injuries. I was pretty proud of what I accomplished that night, so maybe I convinced myself I won, but I felt physically and mentally that I had done enough because I was the champion in that fight.

“You take all those variables. I felt like I convinced myself I won the fight,” De La Hoya added. “It’s a 12-round fight. As an elite fighter, you’re watching what you’re doing every second, every minute: ‘OK, I’ve got this round in the bag, this one, this one, OK, that’s maybe six or seven. Let me take it easy.’ When I get injured like I did during the fight because I had torn my rotator cuff before the fight, you start to think, ‘If I just come in here calmly and land a couple of punches, I’ve already won the first half, so maybe if I win just one more round, I can win the fight 7-5, maybe a draw.’ You start to think that way, and that can be a mistake, or it can be a plus. Obviously, it was a big mistake for me that night. I should have just gone out there and given it my all.”

There had been plans for a rematch – no surprise considering that De La Hoya vs. Mayweather was the highest-grossing boxing match of all time at the time.

“We had a one-year rematch clause in the contract. Guess what Floyd did? He retired for a year and let the contract expire one day,” De La Hoya said.

This is not an accurate memory. De La Hoya vs. Mayweather was in May 2007. Mayweather said afterwards that he would retirebut less than three months later announced his return to face Ricky Hatton later that yeara fight organized by Golden Boy. Then, in 2008, Mayweather has decided to retire again and skipped the De La Hoya rematch. He returned in 2009 to face Juan Manuel Marquez.

However, De La Hoya does not believe that the rematch would have gone in his favor.

“My body was failing. My body was over it,” De La Hoya said, recalling how he felt in the first and only Mayweather fight. “That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I felt it in the seventh, eighth round. My jab is my weapon. I hit my jab and nobody can hit me. I just couldn’t hit him. It was over.”

However, De La Hoya believes that the outcome would have been different if he and Mayweather had met a little earlier in their careers and De La Hoya had worked with his usual trainer. Instead of working with Floyd Mayweather Sr., De La Hoya hired Freddie Roach for the fight.

“If I were a year younger and had Senior by my side, I would knock him (Junior) out,” said De La Hoya.

Meanwhile, De La Hoya believes that another superfight involving Mayweather – his long-awaited bout against Manny Pacquiao in 2015, which took place years later than originally planned – would have ended with “Money Mayweather” throwing his gloves in the air even if it had taken place sooner.

“It probably would have been a controversial decision, like a closer fight, but I still think Floyd probably would have gotten it,” De La Hoya said. “Pacquiao was literally a Pac-Man back when he was coming up, when I fought him (in 2008). He took me down like there was no tomorrow. He didn’t stop throwing punches. This Pacquiao will probably give Mayweather a better fight. I don’t know if he’ll win, but he’ll give him a better fight.”

“They want to see a back-and-forth. They want to see even fights on paper. When I saw it live, as a fighter I knew exactly what was going on with the fighters mentally and physically, and Pacquiao was not the same. The same goes for Floyd. At their peak, I still believe Floyd would have won the fight.”

Mayweather’s earnings peaked in 2005, starting with his pay-per-view main event against Arturo Gatti, and continued on an upward trajectory for more than a decade. Mayweather knew exactly how to market himself and also stretch himself to maximize his earning potential.

“He played it smart. After he beat me, he became ‘Money Mayweather.’ He became a businessman,” De La Hoya said. “‘Okay, now let me have my career, the longevity of my career, I’m going to extend it as long as possible. I’m not going to get hit. I’m going to throw and pick punches so my career lasts longer and makes more money.’ Very smart.

“Floyd was built to be a villain. With the opponents we put him against, from Miguel Cotto to everyone else, he (Mayweather) was the villain. He was the perfect villain. People loved to hate him. He built his whole career on that and he’s one of the greatest. A lot of people tuned in to see him lose, but a lot of people tuned in to see greatness, too.

“He didn’t get hit a lot in his career, in the amateurs or the pros, and he went about it smart. The business is good, but it wasn’t my thing. My thing is you fight everybody in their prime, at their peak, you fight the best and, guess what, the chances of losing are pretty big because you’re fighting other great fighters. That was my mindset with every fight I signed for. With Floyd, you can argue, ‘Well, this guy should have fought him two years earlier, he should have fought him earlier, maybe he got him when he was older.’ You can argue, but at the end of the day, when you look at the skill in the ring, it’s just different. That’s undeniable.

“Floyd played his cards right. If there was ever a winner in Las Vegas, it’s Floyd.”

Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2His book “Fighting words: Heart and suffering of boxing”, is available on Amazon.