General

Round by Round: Weekly Boxing Notes

Aug 29, 2008, 6:30 PM UTC

The Golden Goose Stays in the Picture
â†µThe most surprising announcement from Oscar De La Hoya this week was NOT that he would be fighting Manny Pacquiao in December. It was this response to the question of his retirement: “We’ll see after the (Pacquiao) fight on how I feel if this fight will be my last fight or not.”â†µâ†µAh ... huh. All this year only one thing has remained certain in De La Hoya’s schedule -- the fact that he would retire after a final fight in December. Clearly, that’s out the window now, and though it’s somewhat preposterous after all his talk, it’s also easy to imagine his reasoning. The Big Farewell plans have not gone nearly so well as he might have hoped. A Pacquiao fight is the best he can do for December, and it will be a huge payday, but not exactly the career benediction that he’s looking for. Not to mention that it leaves some GIGANTIC fights out there still to be had, including the one that it seems like his Golden Boy team is floating most pointedly right now, an Oscar/Ricky Hatton match-up at Wembley Stadium. Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer also recently mentioned Oscar’s desire to fight in the Estadio Azteca, the soccer stadium in Mexico City that has only hosted one fight in its history, Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Greg Haugen in 1993, a bout that drew over 130,000 spectators.â†µ

â†µâ†µAnd let us not forget, Floyd is still out there somewhere counting his money with his money-counter made of diamonds. Margarito is willing to fight Oscar in a bodega in East L.A. Hell, maybe even Sergio Mora will punch his lottery ticket. All bets are off for now at least, because it appears as if boxing’s Golden Goose has no intention of gathering up his eggs and going home.â†µ

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â†µJunior Superfly Weights
â†µBoxing gets up off the canvas this weekend with its first notable bout since the scourge of the Olympics, the Ivan Calderon/Hugo Cazares rematch in Puerto Rico for Calderon’s WBO title at 108 pounds. This is another installment in the great boxing rivalry between Puerto Rico (Calderon) and Mexico (Cazares), and with the specter of the Margarito/Cotto bout hovering over the affair, no doubt the Calderon mania will be thick down in P.R. (Margarito has said that he will be ringside at the fight to root on Cazares). â†µ

â†µâ†µIn their first bout, almost a year ago to the day, Calderon won a hotly disputed split decision despite being knocked down in the eighth round. It was a great, seesaw battle (some video below) and the rematch promises to pick up right where the first fight left off. So what I’m trying to say is that you could certainly do worse than to plunk down for the Calderon/Cazares PPV on Saturday night to slake your bloodthirst a little after all that wholesome rah-rah college football crap.â†µ

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â†µâ†µ(Programming note: America’s lone boxing medalist from Beijing, Deontay Wilder, will join Brian Kenny in the studio tonight on Friday Night Fights, ESPN2, 9 p.m. EST.)â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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