Oscar De La Hoya praises Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s skills, heart, power and business savvy

The mutual dislike between two of the best fighters of the last generation — Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya — not only existed ahead of their 2007 super fight but continued on well afterward.

Even though Mayweather went on to fight many times under De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions banner, it is often said that Mayweather did so because of his relationship with Richard Schaefer, who was the company’s CEO at the time. When Schaefer and Golden Boy split, Mayweather ended his relationship with Golden Boy as well (as did a number of other fighters).

Over the years, De La Hoya hasn’t been shy about trashing Mayweather. He’s also complimented Mayweather on occasion, too. But it was nonetheless a little surprising, and also rather refreshing, to hear De La Hoya praise Mayweather while speaking with Hall of Fame football player Shannon Sharpe in a recent episode of Club Shay Shay.

“Floyd is a great fighter,” De La Hoya said. Later, he called Mayweather “one of the best.”

“I love his patience,” De La Hoya said. “I love the fact that he’s a hard-hitter and he has a chin. People discredit him for not having a chin. He has a chin. And he has a big heart. What makes him unique is obviously his boxing ability, but his ring generalship is what does it for me. He knows how to pick his spots. He knows how to get you tired without even throwing punches. It’s crazy.”

Mayweather topped De La Hoya by split decision all those years ago. De La Hoya believed at that time that he had done enough to win.

“When you’re a fighter inside the ring, when that final bell rings, you know it in your heart, in your gut and physically if you won or you lost. You just feel it. It’s a sensation, and I just felt it,” De La Hoya said. “Whether I was wrong or I’m right, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. I fought against the very best in Floyd Mayweather, younger, in his prime, undefeated. And I was over the hill, tons of injuries. I was pretty proud with what I accomplished that night, so maybe I was convincing myself that I won, but I did feel it physically and mentally that I did enough, because I was the champion in that fight.

“You take all those variables. I felt maybe I [convinced] myself that I won that fight,” De La Hoya added. “It’s a 12-round fight. As an elite fighter, you’re always keeping track of what you’re doing every second, every minute: ‘OK, I have this round in the bag, I have this one, this one, OK, that’s maybe six or seven. Let me cruise.’ If I get injuries just the way I did during the fight, because I had torn rotator cuffs going into the fight, you start thinking, ‘If I just cruise here and land a few punches, I got the first half won already, so maybe if I just win one more round, I can win the fight 7-5, maybe a draw.’ You start thinking that, and that can be a mistake, or it can be a plus. Obviously that night for me it was a big mistake. I should’ve just gone out there and given it my all.”

There had been plans for a rematch — no surprise, given that at the time De La Hoya vs. Mayweather was the highest-grossing boxing match ever.

“We had a rematch [clause] for a year contractually. Guess what Floyd did? He retired for a year and one day, let the contract expire,” De La Hoya said.

This isn’t a wholly accurate recollection. De La Hoya vs. Mayweather was in May 2007. Mayweather said afterward that he was retiring, but less than three months later announced his return to face Ricky Hatton later that year, a fight that Golden Boy promoted. Then, in 2008, Mayweather decided to retire again and forgo the De La Hoya rematch. He came back in 2009 to face Juan Manuel Marquez.

De La Hoya doesn’t believe the rematch would’ve gone his way, though.

“My body was breaking down. My body was over it,” De La Hoya said, recalling how he felt in the first and only Mayweather fight. “That was the last straw. I felt it in the seventh, eighth round. My jab is my weapon. I throw my jab and nobody can beat me. I just couldn’t throw it. It was over.”

De La Hoya does feel, however, that the result would’ve been different had he and Mayweather met just a little earlier in their careers and had De La Hoya worked with his usual trainer. Instead of working with Floyd Mayweather Sr., De La Hoya hired Freddie Roach for the bout.

“If I was one year younger and had Senior in my corner, I would knock him [Junior] out,” De La Hoya said.

Meanwhile, De La Hoya feels another superfight involving Mayweather — his long-awaited bout with Manny Pacquiao in 2015 that came years after it was initially desired — still would’ve ended with “Money Mayweather” raising his gloves in the air even if it had happened earlier.

“It would’ve probably been a controversial decision, like a closer fight, but I still think Floyd probably would’ve pulled it off,” De La Hoya said “Pacquiao at the time when he was coming up, when I fought him [in 2008] he was literally a Pac-Man. He was chomping at me like there is no tomorrow. He wouldn’t stop throwing punches. That Pacquiao probably gives Mayweather a better fight. I don’t know if he wins, but he gives him a better fight.

“You want to see a back-and-forth. You want to see evenly matched on paper. When we saw it live, as a fighter myself I know exactly what’s going on with the fighters mentally and physically, and Pacquiao wasn’t the same. You can make the argument for Floyd as well. At their peak, I still think Floyd would’ve won the fight.”

Mayweather’s paydays peaked from 2005 onward, beginning with his pay-per-view main event against Arturo Gatti and continuing on an upward trend for more than a decade, with Mayweather knowing exactly how to market himself, and also prolong himself, to maximize his earning potential.

“He played it smart. After he beat me, he became ‘Money Mayweather.’ He became a businessman,’” De La Hoya said. “‘OK, now let me have my career, the longevity of my career, I’m going to extend it as long as possible. I’m not going to get hit. I’m going to throw punches and pick and choose so my career can last longer and make more money.’ Very smart.

“Floyd was built to be the villain. With his opponents that we put in front of him from Miguel Cotto to everybody, he [Mayweather] was the villain. He was the perfect villain. People loved to hate him. He made a whole career about it and he’s one of the greatest. A lot of people tuned in to watch him lose, but a lot of ppl also tuned in to watch greatness.

“He didn’t get hit much in his career, in the amateurs, in the pros, and he played it smart. The business is great, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. My cup of tea is you fight everybody in their prime, in their peak, you fight against the best and, guess what, the chances of losing are pretty great, because you’re fighting other great fighters. That was my mentality going into every fight I signed for. With Floyd you can make the argument, ‘Well, this guy, he should’ve fought him two years prior, he should’ve fought him earlier, maybe he caught him when he was older.’ You can make the argument, but at the end of the day when you watch the skills inside the ring, it’s just different. It’s undeniable.

“Floyd played his cards right. If there was ever a winner in Las Vegas, it’s Floyd.”

Follow David Greisman on Twitter @FightingWords2. His book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.