Boxing isn’t what it used to be.
Muhammad Ali 1964: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
Dereck Chisora 2016: "I'm like herpes. One minute I'm gone, then I'm back."
— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) November 3, 2016
However, if the fight between MMA star Conor McGregor and retired multiple world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr was to happen, the sport would sink to a new low.
Or so says Oscar De La Hoya, anyway.
De La Hoya had a boxing glittering career, winning world titles at six different weight divisions and an Olympic gold medal. He also knows how good Maywather is, after losing to him in a bout back in 2007.
McGregor and Mayweather have been engaging in a back and forth for a while about a potential fight, but De La Hoya isn’t convinced. He seems genuinely offended that a fighter from another sport has challenged one of the best boxers of all-time, who retired undefeated.
“Boxing is boxing and MMA is MMA. They’re two separate sports,” the retired boxer told ESPN.
“It would be a joke, it would be an embarrassment for boxing if an MMA fighter were to go into the ring. It would be a no-contest. It would be the same thing if a fighter went into the Octagon, it would be an embarrassment for MMA.”
De La Hoya also said the UFC Lightweight champion should work his way up the rankings if he’s serious about being a boxer, and that he “cannot be calling out a top fighter in boxing right off the bat.”
“If McGregor gets inside a boxing ring, he’ll get outclassed easy. McGregor has never fought a boxer, ever in his life,” the American said.
“In all seriousness, he should start off by fighting an amateur boxer, win a few amateur fights, maybe go on to win the Golden Gloves or something, and then when you turn pro he should fight a four-rounder, [in] which maybe he’ll get beat.”
