Money by Tris Dixon

Author:Tris Dixon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857908438
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd

CHAPTER 9

GOOD VERSUS BAD

THE WORLD AWAITED.

Or so the tagline insisted.

In 2007, Oscar De La Hoya was still king of the pay-per-view mountain and so De La Hoya-Mayweather was his project to announce.

‘It’s official,’ read a statement from Oscar’s Golden Boy Promotions. ‘The fight will happen May fifth.’

Mayweather had long wanted to use De La Hoya as a springboard to fame and greater fortune and now was his chance.

Insiders were split as to who would win, wondering if Floyd was too youthful and fast or whether the old glamour boy would be too big and experienced.

Regardless of the outcome, the world knew it was Floyd’s big opportunity.

‘Even casual observers in the boxing community understood “the fight” meant Floyd Mayweather Jr would finally get his dream bout jackpot,’ wrote Boxing Digest.

‘This is the fight I’ve been waiting for,’ Floyd confirmed. ‘To show everyone that I’m one of the greatest.’

There was speculation that the contest could earn Mayweather, who turned thirty in the February before the bout, as much as $20 million.

HBO, who would broadcast the fight in the USA, announced a pioneering show called De La Hoya-Mayweather 24/7, a series they would go on to utilise in future years for major fights.

It was a four-part documentary that took the audience behind the scenes of the training camps, introducing the fighters and those in their families and entourages to the fans. The content was gritty, the delivery and production high-end and polished.

The first thing Floyd said on the show was, to the camera, ‘Look me in my eyes Oscar, I’m going to beat your ass.’

That set the tone for what was to follow.

De La Hoya had been the network’s cash cow, appearing twenty-nine times on their airwaves. Floyd was now on twenty, though his relationship with them had, of course, endured many issues.

De La Hoya was the betting underdog when the odds were announced. He had become a part-time boxer, fighting just fifteen rounds in three years and, at thirty-four, could no longer claim to be in his prime.

He did not need the money and with a history of big fights extending back to a 1992 Olympic gold medal in Barcelona, four years before Floyd took a shot at the same colour medal in Atlanta, he was asked if he should still be fighting.

‘I just decided,’ he said, ‘I’m going to continue fighting as long as my reflexes, my speed and my timing are all intact. I’m going to keep going and take advantage of my youth while I have it. I decided to fight, and I’m going after the best.’

The last time he had fought a pound-for-pound ruler he was stopped by a Bernard Hopkins body shot in a bold attempt for the middleweight title. This time someone was moving up to fight him, as Mayweather aimed for another title in a fifth division, challenging De La Hoya for the WBC light-middleweight title he had smashed Nicaraguan Ricardo Mayorga for a year earlier.

De La Hoya, the old fighter-salesman, knew how to market an event – by saying it was not just any ordinary fight.

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