Oscar De La Hoya speaks on Mayweather-Hatton, refuses to entertain fight with Winky Wright

By G. Leon

23/09/2007

Oscar De La Hoya speaks on Mayweather-Hatton, refuses to entertain fight with Winky Wright

GL:  Tell us about it Oscar, December 8th. "It's going to be a fight.  Ricky Hatton remnds me of a bigger, faster, stronger, smarter Jose Luis Castillo, and we all know what happened there.  You can't count Hatton out, that's for sure.  I love Hatton's chances on beating Floyd Mayweather."  

GL:  Do you consider this the biggest fight, out of the upcoming PPV's that Golden Boy has staged?

ODLH:  Absolutely, obviously we've staged some of my fights, with my partner in the backround, Hopkins, and the Mosley fight.  Yeah, absolutely, when you have two ring champions, in the respect of weight classes, you know it's going to be a good fight.  You know you're fighting the best.

GL:  Bernard likened this fight to Duran and Leonard.  Do you see such a comparison as viable for this fight?

ODLH:  Absolutely.  I think you have Ricky Hatton, who's going to be aggressive, energetic, who's young and also smart, and Mayweather's going to be Mayweather.  He has one mode, and that obviously is to box.  It's going to be very interesting. 

GL:  When can we expect you back in the ring?

ODLH:  That's something we're working on.  Richard and I are discussing what the possibilities are.  There's nothing written in stone, but I think we'll come out with something very soon.

GL:  Does Mayweather has to put the kind of performance in, on December 8th, where he shows that he can do more than box, in order to get a rematch with you?

ODLH:  I was very dissapointed with the first fight, and the whole world was dissapointed.  You had Mayweather talking about how he was going to tear my head off.  He said he was going to fight me, and give the fans what they want.  If he's going to sing the same tune once again, why even do it?  It depends on his performance, so we'll have to wait and see.  There are a lot of interesting fights coming up down the road, and we'll have to see how everything escalates. 

GL:  Last time you and I spoke, you said you wanted to fight two of three more times in 2008.  Is that still the case?

ODLH:  Absolutely.  I'm getting ready to do a run through of a preparation I'll be starting very soon.  I'll see if I can make 147.  I'm going to do a trial run, and if my body feels good, I'm going to jump to that weight class.

GL:  Winky Wright said that he can make 147, and after we spoke, he said he would make 47 for a fight with you.  Is that something you'd entertain, considering he's willing to cut off that extra weight.

ODLH:  I don't know... that fight will never happen.

GL:  Why?

ODLH:  It just will never happen.  I have other fighters I'm thinking about, and that fight will never happen. 

GL:  Closing thoughts for the fans.

ODLH:  Thank you BoxingTalk.  If you want to listen to the latest news, from any boxer, you tune in to BoxingTalk.com.

M

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