Oscar De La Hoya Breaks His Silence Part II

By G. Leon

15/06/2007

Oscar De La Hoya Breaks His Silence  Part II

Sorry Puerto Rico: De La Hoya says Trinidad rematch will never happen and Cotto isn't on his radar

GL: The Top Rank-Golden Boy rivalry has been well documented. Bob Arum recently told me that he'd be willing to sit down and discuss Mosley-Cotto and Pacquiao-Marquez II. Is that something you and Richard would be willing to do? "Absolutely. We're obviously willing to give the fight fans what they want to see. If you talk about a Mosley-Cotto fight, I think it's a little too premature at this point. First of all, I would like to see what the numbers were on the PPV with Zab Judah versus Cotto. Then one obstacle we're going to have is with the split. Shane Mosley is the champion, Shane Mosley is the better fighter and he's the guy that everyone wants to fight if they want to fight the best at 147. There's a lot of obstacles we have to face, but can it be done for the fans? Absolutely."

GL: Tito Trinidad recently told Boxingtalk that there's a 50-50 chance he could be returning to the ring. What do you think about that?

ODLH: "I was with Richard today and I was eating half of a brownie with a little bit of milk. Richard told me I should eat all of it because Trinidad just called me and he wants to fight you at 160! I started laughing and I put down the brownie and I told him I can't make 160 so don't even think about it. Is it going to happen? No it will never happen."

GL: Golden Boy, along with Warriors Boxing and Golden Grain recently captured a piece of its first heavyweight title following Sultan Ibragimov win over Briggs for the WBO title. Can you give us some thoughts on that?

ODLH: "We're extremely excited about Sultan Ibragimov. He's willing to fight anybody, anywhere at anytime. He obviously wants to unify the titles so we have one heavyweight champion. When the right time presents itself we will make those fights happen. And he's willing to do it. He's a heavyweight who wants to fight the best to be the best and he's afraid of no one."

GL: What did you think about Cotto-Judah?

ODLH: "I thought it was a great fight. Zab Judah surprised me a great deal and if he would have thrown punches back he would have probably knocked out Cotto. Obviously with me as an expert in boxing, I knew if Zab Judah couldn't do anything early Cotto would stop him in the later rounds."

GL: How would you feel about a fight with Miguel Cotto? I'm sure he'd come to go toe to toe.

ODLH: "Cotto is not even on my radar. From what I saw in the Zab Judah fight I thought he did a tremendous job and I'm happy for him."

GL: We know Mayweather wants the rematch with you and you want Mayweather to fight Mosley. If Mayweather fights Mosley and wins would that guarantee him a rematch?

OLDH: "It would be a possibility, but I would love to see that Mosley-Mayweather fight because I truly believe deep down inside that if they fight Mosley would beat Mayweather."

GL: Is there anything you'd like to say in closing?

ODLH: "To all the fans who watched the fight, I tried to give you guys an exciting fight. We pressed the action and we did everything possible to make it an enjoyable fight. I apologize if a lot of fans are not satisfied, but if you put a fighter in front of me that wants to exchange you're going to have a fight of the century. I want to thank all of the fans for all of their support."

M

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