The Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. megafight in 2007 did record-breaking business. The fight broke the record at the time for most pay-per-view buys at 2.4 million homes.
But the narrow split-decision loss has always bothered 'The Golden Boy'. It's one he's wanted to run back and gain revenge. Mayweather, for his part, hasn't been particularly keen on the idea. But with Mayweather taking on Conor McGregor, and most recently, Logan Paul, a sequel between the two biggest attractions could potentially do gigantic business at the box office with the advent of streaming services like DAZN, which De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions airs their fights on.
De La Hoya sees that and other ways that make him feel it would break the current record of 4.6 buys set by Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao in May 2015 and would lure 'Money' back to rematch him.
"Obviously, he's (Mayweather) all about the money," De La Hoya tells DAZN News.
"This would be probably the biggest fight out there for him. I believe it would be bigger than him fighting McGregor. It would be bigger than him fighting Logan Paul or whoever he's bound to fight next. I think that people want to see real fights. People want to see legend versus legend, champion versus champion. This is what we do. This is what we've done for practically all our lives. People, not that they're getting tired of seeing these exhibitions, but people want to see real fights.
"They want to see real legends in the ring. Fighters like Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and myself, we are real legends who put it out on the line and were in the ring for many years, fighting for world titles for decades. I strongly feel that a fight with Floyd would be massive, would be huge. That alone would attract Floyd Mayweather. I strongly feel a fight with me and Floyd can easily generate five million homes. With all the technology, there's so much that you can integrate in terms of publicizing the event, in terms of making it that much bigger. You now have the meta worlds, the NFT's. You have that whole social media platform. It can be pretty big."
De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) was scheduled to make his long-awaited return to the ring against former UFC champion-turned boxer Vitor Belfort in September. But eight days before the fight, De La Hoya contracted COVID-19, which put him in the hospital. Because of that, De La Hoya was forced to pull out. He's still experiencing difficulties from it and isn't sure if he'll still return, whether it be against Mayweather or somebody else.
"COVID did get the best of me," De La Hoya admits.
"I continue to train. I continue to take care of myself. I continue to do all the right things. Feeling great. I was maybe 80% when COVID hit me. I was ready. I was fast. I was strong. My timing was almost up to par. And then COVID hit, and it just derailed everything. I'm actually still feeling a little pressure on my chest alone. So when I go run, it's difficult to breathe after running a couple of miles. I don’t think I'm in a position right now to even say if I want to fight again or not because I don't feel it right now. Who knows, maybe that can change in the next couple of months. But right now, I'm not feeling it. I'm not getting any younger."