Ringside With Raymundo 10.30.09: No It's Not, Oscar

Posted by Raymundo Dioses on 10.30.2009

This week, how Oscar De La Hoya passed along misleading information for a fighter faced with the decision to retire, the HBO 24/7 series Cotto/Pacquiao and random thoughts on the happenings in the sport of boxing.


Photo by Laura De La Torre / 411mania.com

In his most recent Ring Magazine online blog, Oscar De La Hoya's topic this time around was the decision that Jermain Taylor now has to make as to continuing his career or not after his concussive knockout loss to Arthur Abraham in the first round of the ‘Super Six'.

In the article, De La Hoya pointed out what he thought Taylor was thinking immediately after the loss, and what Taylor should do at this point in regards to his decision to continue fighting or not, and ended his blog with the following line:

"It's up to him, though, only him."

I cannot effectively describe my anger towards this statement, as well as my feelings towards the blog as a whole.

This isn't a pot shot at Oscar, who recently took to the internet and thus far has given efficient insight as well as in depth and very interesting reads on his own career, and I seek not to quote one line and have everyone believe the whole article was based on that single thought. In fact, you will find a majority of DLH's 687 word blog in this article, and I would encourage a reading of it.

However, De La Hoya's last line in his blog just put me over the top. My reply to that is simply this:

"No it's not."

It is well a known moniker of a fighter that when he is in the ring, unlike other sports who have multiple teammates, that a boxer is all by himself in a ring. Which is true; when the bell rings, it's him against one other person with a third man in the ring to make sure the fight is fought fair.

Yet throughout a boxer's career, it's anything but a lonely journey.

A boxer has a promoter, sponsors, advisors both financially and physically, a manager, a trainer, a chief second and a cut man, multiple sparring partners and friends and family who join him throughout his course, and its up to these people, who are also affected by the boxers well being, to let him know their thoughts on his future.

So many aspects go into a fight, it's not simply, ‘want to fight? Yes. You want to fight? Yes. Ok, they are fighting.' There are contracts, negotiations, if need be, television dates, venue selection, set up for the venue, as well as weights to make and physical's to pass. Anyone involved can speak up for either fighter and many athletic commissions have placed mandatory suspensions on fighters whom they don't deem physically able to fight.

Also, many a promoter likens himself to being like family to his fighter, so if his family is going into a fight where he might be seriously hurt, wouldn't a promoter be the first make sure that their opinion is heard and that the right decision is made?

DLH: "I think he can get past this. As long as you don't lie to yourself, as long as you don't listen to anybody else but yourself, as long as you want to search for the answer deep inside, I don't think it's too late for him."

The first part is good, don't lie to yourself. Yet the latter is horrible. A boxer, as we've seen in the past, is the hardest athlete to get into retirement.

De La Hoya himself was choked up at his press conference to announce his retirement just earlier this year in front of the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, and a boxer will tell you he'd rather gut it out for a shot at one more fight and glory then say the words, "I am retiring from the sport of boxing."

This is an extremely physical and metal sport, boxing. It takes a toll on your mind and body, with the wear and tear enough to effect you for the rest of your life. It's one sport where it's better to get out early than too late. The boxer knows that, and you know what? The people around him do as well. The entourage, the businessman, the friends and family, they know that too, and they should act like it.

Making light of the concussion suffered by Taylor that prompted a mandatory stay in Europe before he was allowed to fly? Oscar De La Hoya provides it.

"Hey, he got caught with one punch, a good, solid right down the pipe."

At times, De La Hoya rightfully points out the things that a fighter himself sees as warning signs that the end is near.

"With me, it was a physical thing. I was getting beat up in the gym… When guys lighter than you who don't have much experience are working you over, that was my first sign that I should think about retiring."

With De La Hoya, he saw his signs in the sparring sessions with head gear on.

Unfortunately, Taylor is seeing his signs in actual fights without head gear, and has suffered three devastating knockout losses in his last five fights, the last one sending him to the hospital. Ask Troy Aikman what a concussion is, and after getting a few what you should do as an athlete.

I understand the situation that Taylor is in. The former undisputed champion finds himself the underdog in a tournament that could possibly help transcend the sport of boxing as well as his career, and will be hard to walk away from. Walking away in the limelight, I guess you could deem it.

Yet boxing waits for nobody, just like time. One too many an absorbed punch, and it could mean the final bell, and I'm not talking about the ring bell.

"We fighters are easily influenced. If we want to retire, people say, you can do this. You're still fast, you're still strong.' Then you get pumped up to fight again. And it works the other way, too."

It sounds as if De La Hoya knows the situation, and he has recently gone through it himself. Yet he himself should how sensitive a situation a fighter is in when he is getting knocked out on a regular basis.

I understand that no fighter ever wants to retire with his last fight being recorded a loss, much less a knockout loss. Yet Taylor finds himself with little options, and one would of course be to continue fighting, yet against diminished opposition. "If I wasn't able to compete against the best, why do it," De La Hoya says. This is factor Taylor should focus on, and be proud that throughout his career he fought the best, but cannot any longer without concern of serious physical consequences.

My prose in this context is not to bash De La Hoya for writing what he did. For his credit, he did write about all sides regarding retirement; a fighters, the fight team and family members. De La Hoya made points on both ends regarding retiring and not retiring, and sounded sincere when speaking directly as a former fighter himself.

"I don't think he'll walk away. It's too difficult to walk away. With me, it's still difficult to accept that I'm retired. Boxing is like a drug. Right now, I'm going through stages of withdrawal. It's like I don't know what to with myself. I can't imagine what any other fighter goes through."

My stance is this: I am a fight writer, and I have spent many a night watching in person, boxers hitting each other with force, and endure punishment in order to reach the top of this sport, that leaves them bloody and physically exhausted. This is a brutal sport where realistically, lives are on the line. A fighter could die from a single blow, let's not be shy in admitting that.

And when one fight is too many, the fighter, the entourage, and the people who care about him should sit down and agree that this is not a sport to sit around and toy with retirement. It needs to be done, and done swiftly, retirement. And this is not asking the fighter to step away from the sport, not at all. At your average fight, there are present, past and future boxers in the venue who just want to be where the boxing is.

To be as close to the sport as a writer is, is a special thing. From talking to the fighters, to following their careers and being present and many of one single fighters fights, to being allowed the honor of speaking directly to them in interviews, eating next to them at press events and getting the ultimate privilege to get to know on a personal level, a writer grows a natural affinity to the partakers of the sweet science.

A writer is also cognizant of the fact that this isn't baseball, this isn't basketball, and it isn't football. Boxing is a fight, and these people are fighting for their lives, and to keep their lives. A boxer doesn't want to go out in a blaze of glory, a boxer wants to fight and go home that night and feed his family. A boxer is a person, not a Neanderthal with nothing to lose. A boxer has everything to live for, just like any athlete. Unlike many athletes though, it's their very lives that are on the line every time they compete.

I, and we, have to take De La Hoya's blog as it is. This is a blog by a fighter who stayed too long in the sport about a fighter who people are saying should leave the sport. De La Hoya has used his blog thus far to talk about his own career and promote, because he is a promoter (Golden Boy Promotions), to the world that Juan Manuel Marquez was going to beat Floyd Mayweather. Which is fine, it's his blog and he has the right to do so. Yet to pass along bad information to a fighter still in the sport, that's where the line should be drawn.

"Only he has the answer, only he can say if he should retire or not. My advice would be to not read any stories, don't listen to anybody, even family members."

Hopefully in Jermain Taylor's case, he didn't read Oscar De La Hoya's story.

HBO's 24/7

The follow up to the pee drinking of Juan Manual Marquez and flamboyance of Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the calm and serious demeanor of Miguel Cotto and the laid back approach of Manny Pacquiao.

This series will lack the drama that its previous series had, yet still shows great insight into the back stories of the fighters.

My heart goes out to the city of Baguio and its inhabitants. It was nice to see trainer Freddie Roach speak to the survivors of the storm, and Team Pacquiao is very generous for extending their help.

Meanwhile Cotto seems like a man who is making a late change in his life, from new tattoos, to new trainers alongside a renewed relationship with his wife and a new training spot in Florida. In my column next week, I will highlight Cotto's path since his loss to Antonio Margarito in July 2008. Who would have thought he would be in the position he is now?

Through My Eyes

Tomasz Adamek enters the heavyweight picture after his victory over Andrew "Foul Pole" Golota, (that's got to be the most demeaning nickname a boxer has ever had!). It's great for the sport, because it lines up a plethora of heavyweight bouts in 2010… Chris Arreola will be making his comeback in December under the Paul Williams v. ‘Whoever decides to man up' card. It'll be nice to see Arreola back in action, as he has nothing to hang his head for in his spirited loss to Vitali Klitschko in September. Sometimes a fighter could learn more from a loss than he can from a win… I'm also hearing that the entire December card could come to Southern California… Will Yonnhy Perez give Joseph Agbeko a trick or treat this weekend?... I bet you dollar to dimes that Freddie Roach kissed the American soil once he and Pacquiao were in the United States and back training at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles… It's getting harder and harder by the day to pick a winner in this fight, which is a tell-tale sign that the fight will be a good one… Hector Camacho Jr. faces Yori Boy Campas this weekend as the main event of Latin Invasion II: Revenge of the Son…