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Steve KimESPN
Oscar De La Hoya told ESPN on Wednesday that he will return to the ring at the age of 47.
Twelve years after his last fight, the 11-time titlist confirmed he’s ready to end his retirement.
“The rumors are true, and I’m going to start sparring in the next few weeks,” De La Hoya said.
De La Hoya (39-6 30 KOs) will not be engaging in an exhibition fight like fellow retired champions Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr.
“It’s a real fight,” said De La Hoya. “I miss being in the ring, I love boxing. Boxing is what gave me everything I have today, and I just miss it.”
After winning a gold medal for the U.S. at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, De La Hoya had a meteoric rise in the professional ranks, winning the WBO junior lightweight title by stopping Jimmy Bredahl in 10 rounds in 1994, in only his 12th professional bout. De La Hoya would eventually win major world titles in six different weight classes.
During this stretch “The Golden Boy” was considered one of the best fighters in boxing and its biggest pay-per-view and gate attraction. He was as marketable outside the ring as he was good inside of it. There are very few fighters who can appear on the cover of Ring Magazine and Newsweek.
De La Hoya’s career came to an ignominious conclusion when he quit on his stool after the eighth round of a fight against Manny Pacquiao in December 2008. A few months later at age 36, De la Hoya announced his retirement.
“Look, my last fight with Pacquiao, I weighed in at 145 and obviously that was a shell of myself,” said De La Hoya of his ill-fated decision to move down to welterweight to face Pacquiao after seven years of campaigning at junior middleweight.
Now, as he is set to return, De La Hoya understands that many will question this decision.
“Look, it’s been a long time, yes,” said De La Hoya. “But actually my jab feels faster than ever. I have to make sure that my conditioning is perfect, my health is good. And that’s going to take place in the next few weeks. So we’ll see.”
De La Hoya, who has battled drug and alcohol addiction in the past said he started to get back into shape a couple of months ago, and as he began to feel better and better, the old itch came back.
De La Hoya said he looked around the current landscape of boxing and didn’t like what he saw.
“All these fighters are not of the level that was 15, 20 years [ago], all these fighters are demanding so much money, all these fighters are demanding the moon,” said De La Hoya. “And they’re forgetting that you must train hard, you must work hard. So that’s a huge advantage for me because I know what it takes to train hard, I know how to train smart. I know how to fight smart in the ring.
“These guys are in it just for the money — that’ll be the big difference. I will fight for the glory, and these guys only fight for the money. And guess what? The glory will always win.”
For now, the plan is to compete between 154-160 pounds. As for who he will be targeting?
“Any top guy, any top guy out there,” said De La Hoya.