Having said the fighters are to blame for the health of the sport, Oscar De La Hoya has garnered support from two former pros.
In his weekly Clap Back Thursday social media post, De La Hoya said it was down to the fighters that the sport was not thriving as it should, because the best were not fighting the best and they were afraid of staking their ‘0’ in high-risk fights.
And on ProBox TV’s Top Stories, Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri, both former world champions at least in part agreed with the Hall of Famer who is now a promoter.
“I remember Oscar criticising Eddie Hearn for being on a losing streak a little while ago, that kind of thing happens when you make the fights,” said Malignaggi. “Granted, I’m sure if it was up to Eddie he wouldn’t make all those fights, because Turki Alalshikh money comes in, that kind of money has a way of motivating you to make riskier fights than you normally would, so I understand it. But at the same time, when you have a promoter that does make the risk fights, if your fighters are on 15-20 fight unbeaten streaks, you’re not supposed to get your fighters beat obviously, no one wants to do that, but if they’re on these crazy unbeaten streaks, it’s probably because someone’s being avoided there. Most of the time, that’s going to be the case.”
Algieri cited Tim Tszyu and David Benavidez as top fighters today who continuously sought after the toughest challenges and pointed to his own career as to how the machinations of the sport work for a leading fighter and he said the most healthy version of the sport is one where fighters are unafraid of taking a loss or, more specifically, the repercussions of taking a loss, whether it is being frozen out, dropping down the pay scale or being written off.
“I was always in control of my career. There was no one telling me who I could and couldn’t fight,” Algieri added. “I always wanted to fight the best people around me. I saw myself as, being a world champion, I wanted to fight the best available, and there are some guys out there that are like that. But it seems like they are few and far between these days.”
Then, discussing De La Hoya’s views once more, Algieri continued: “I think he really did make a lot of solid points, and there’s a lot of things I agree with, but it’s funny. De La Hoya never misses an opportunity to pat himself on the back, even though it’s called Clap Back Thursday, because he’s saying, ‘When I was a fighter, we all fought each other.’ But it’s true, when Oscar was in his heyday, he fought absolutely everybody. And those guys didn’t mind losing, you’re talking about Tito Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Pernell Whitaker, Fernando Vargas, those guys all fought every, Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins, those guys were always trying to get to the biggest fights possible. You don’t see the same kind of avoidance you see now.
Read the full article here
