Not Cans, De La Hoya Challenges Mayweather In The Ring

Oscar De La Hoya (Instagram @oscardelahoya)

JAKARTA - Oscar De La Hoya offered his longtime rival Floyd Mayweather a "real fight". Golden Boy - his nickname - who will make a comeback next September, is reportedly interested in facing his former opponent.

De La Hoya, now 48, will return to the boxing ring later this year. While it's not yet clear whether the Mexican will fight professionally or in an exhibition bout, he is reportedly taking his comeback fight seriously and hopes to box a few more times in the coming years.

According to Michael Benson of talkSPORT, De La Hoya said, "Let me engage in two fights and then I can call Mayweather, y'all watch - in a real fight."

De La Hoya and Mayweather first faced off in 2007, in a boxing fight that was the biggest grossing of its time, exceeding $130 million.

In this fight, Mayweather successfully relied on the accuracy of his punches coupled with careful defense. Based on records, of the 481 punches that Mayweather threw, 207 of them or 43 percent landed on the body or face of De La Hoya.

In contrast, De La Hoya only landed 21 percent or 122 times from 587 punches that were thrown.

Mayweather was crowned the winner after winning scores from two judges, Jerry Roth (115-113) and Chuck Giampa (116-112), although Tom Kaczmarek gave De La Hoya a 115-114 lead.

While the date for his comeback fight draws near, De La Hoya has yet to announce who his opponent will be. Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre was approached to face De La Hoya and is reportedly very interested in the fight.

Hopefully it will happen so that we can see De La Hoya meet Mayweather again in a fight that is not tinned.