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Level -> "Boxing's Last Great Fight" (5/5/2007 1:07:33 PM)
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By Mark StarrNewsweek
Updated: 2:42 p.m. CT May 4, 2007
Ever since Oscar De La Hoya returned from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with a gold medal, fulfilling a deathbed promise to his mother, he has been boxing’s “Golden Boy”—in and out of the ring. He has long been about the only bankable fighter outside the heavyweight ranks and now is virtually the only genuine contender at any weight whose name is familiar to the average sports fan. Through 15 years, 42 pro fights and six world championship belts, De La Hoya has taken on the challenge of the fight game’s best—from Julio Cesar Chavez to Felix Trinidad, from Shane Mosley to Bernard Hopkins. But he probably never imagined there would come a day when he would enter the ring as a 2-1 underdog.
That’s the challenge facing De La Hoya—now 34 and with only one fight since he was KOed, for the first time in his career, by Bernard Hopkins back in 2004—when he steps into the ring Saturday night in Las Vegas to challenge Floyd Mayweather Jr. for the WBC super welterweight title. Mayweather is 30 years old, undefeated in 37 career fights and has himself held four titles. But even more notable, among boxing insiders, he now reigns as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and is regarded as such a dazzling talent that he would rate consideration for that unofficial, but prestigious title in any era.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18493359/site/newsweek
I'd love to be able to watch this!
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