As the rumor, and of course the denial, of Oscar De La Hoya coming out of retirement has arisen in the last few days, many ask if it it a good move. For the future of Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya needs to fight soon. De La Hoya was, and still remains, the biggest pay-per-view attraction in our time. Even though he lost most of the major fights he had on PPV, he still managed to draw huge PPV ratings. However, for Golden Boy Promotions, he was their biggest star and they have to get anyone on their roster to replace even half of the revenue he could generate. The biggest stars with Golden Boy, Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins, and Juan Manuel Marquez, are all future Hall of Famers, but not PPV stars.
People will point out that the company did over a million PPV buys for Mayweather vs. Mosley, but most of that money went to Mayweather, who was the attraction, not Mosley, as it was proven in the horrible PPV numbers for Shane's fight with Sergio Mora. Also, Mosley is trying to land a fight with Manny Pacquiao and to do so, has declared that he is a free agent and able to make fights independently, without the services Golden Boy Promotions. Earlier this year, Bernard Hopkins had even more disappointing PPV buys for his way-over-the-hill fight with Roy Jones Jr. Not to mention, Hopkins has never been a big PPV draw, and with his style of boxing, he will never become a demand on PPV. Marquez had a fight that did 1 million PPV buys last year, but again, that was against Floyd Mayweather Jr., who is not signed to Golden Boy. Marquez's other PPV fight, with Juan Diaz, was largely overlooked and put up lackluster numbers.
The rest of the stars on Golden Boy's roster are either not PPV main event worthy or they simply don't pull in big ratings. The number one attraction they work with is Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he just uses Golden Boy for their promotional services since Mayweather Promotions themselves does not have a promoter's license. Golden Boy rival Top Rank has Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and now, with his move to "free agency", they may soon be serving up Shane Mosley against some of their fighters. Top Rank has used all of those fighters interchangeably to put together successful events that generated high PPV numbers and profit. So who does Golden Boy have lying around who could blow life back into their PPV revenue easily? Well, how about the owner himself, Oscar De La Hoya.
De La Hoya was boxing's biggest attraction, win or lose, before he retired in April 2009. Despite some of the De La Hoya haters, he had plenty more fans and made a lot of money for a lot of different fighters. In most case, if you fought De La Hoya, you became more marketable, especially if you beat him. The fights De La Hoya had with Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao single-handedly turned them both into PPV mega-attractions that have consistently drew over one million PPV buys. The charm and charisma De La Hoya had always drew in the fans. After his horrible loss to Pacquiao, you know the competitive spirit inside of De La Hoya is not sleeping well with that performance. Although his company has no huge attraction on their roster, the fact that De La Hoya is still able to give at least a decent fight (better than some fighters have been doing as of late), tells me that he is still Golden Boy's best chance to meet or exceed the PPV numbers of Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao. The curiosity of boxing fans everywhere would tune in to see what the Golden Boy has left, especially with all of the publicity and promotion his return would get.
The rumors is that De La Hoya's proposed comeback fight would be against recently fallen-from-grace fighter Ricky Hatton, who has had issues with cocaine abuse and infidelity come forward in the public eye in recent months. Despite those transgressions on Hatton's part, it would still be a huge attraction. Hatton's British following is a force to be reckoned with as they sing and chant for for their man throughout his fights. They've traveled by the thousands to the U.S. for his fights and no doubt will love their champ until the end. If De La Hoya and Hatton could meet at Wembley Stadium in England, the fight could draw virtually 100,000 fans and be a huge PPV success in both England and the U.S. The fact that Golden Boy Promotions is also Hatton's U.S. promoter mean the company will cash in like a casino during fight week in Vegas. If both fighters look competitive, they could milk another PPV event in the future. Remember, money talks and when the name Oscar De La Hoya comes up in a fight, you better believe the money will be screaming. I can hear it loud and clear, can you?