goodbye oscar de la hoya

[Neal Clayton]

hopefully after the beating he took tonight he'll know it's time to quit. everyone watching seems to be speculating that very thing.

one of the greatest of our time.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

While Oscar was readily loved by the public, I don't know that I would consider him one of the greatest. I didn't pay to see the fight tonight but in the weigh-in photograph, he looked like some doubt had crept into his mind.

When I think of great ones...I think of Ali.....Frasier....Foreman.....Sugar Ray Leonard.....Sugar Ray Robinson.......Tommy Hearns......I can't remember the name of the 3rd one...left handed...fought with Hearns and Leonard....old age....ugh!.........before his fights in his aging years.."Hands of Stone"."No Mas".....a 2nd fighter I can't remember his name.....I had a chance to see him in person in Yakima, WA a few years ago....Roberto Duran.........I don't consider Oscar one of those.

[Lee DeRaud]

...I can't remember the name of the 3rd one...left handed...fought with Hearns and Leonard...Marvin Hagler maybe? Can't recall whether he was a lefty or not.

[Neal Clayton]

not one of the greats of all time, but one of the greatest of our time (being the last 10 years or so). not because he was unbeatable, but because he fought everyone who would fight him, and won title fights in six different weight divisions, something that won't be surpassed in the near future.

and if you look at the list of names he's fought over the last 12 years...whitaker, chavez, trinidad, mosley, hopkins, mayweather, pacquiao, he never turned down a big fight, unlike most fighters these days who are very protected by their management and get a lot of cupcakes in between title fights spaced years apart.

and most importantly, he resurrected the sport by largely taking it away from don king, and running it within his own promotion company. it's because of him that we have the pacquiaos, and cottos, and margaritos, and the plethora of other up and coming mostly spanish fighters. he put welterweight thru middleweight boxing back on the map, after don king and his lackluster heavyweights had run the entire sport into the ground.

[Ben Rafael]

While Oscar was readily loved by the public, I don't know that I would consider him one of the greatest. I didn't pay to see the fight tonight but in the weigh-in photograph, he looked like some doubt had crept into his mind.

When I think of great ones...I think of Ali.....Frasier....Foreman.....Sugar Ray Leonard.....Sugar Ray Robinson.......Tommy Hearns......I can't remember the name of the 3rd one...left handed...fought with Hearns and Leonard....old age....ugh!.........before his fights in his aging years.."Hands of Stone"."No Mas".....a 2nd fighter I can't remember his name.....I had a chance to see him in person in Yakima, WA a few years ago....Roberto Duran.........I don't consider Oscar one of those.

Duran said "no mas". Although he denies it.

[Frank Hagan]

He's very popular here in SoCal, especially among the Latino community. The Staples Center just unveiled a bronze statue of him, joining with Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky in that honor. He has some philanthropic enterprises as well as several business interests. His boxing career may be over, but by all accounts he was a pretty good guy.