Rafael Román Martel

Frances Martel

Cambridge, MA- When I first heard that renowned former multi-division champion Oscar De La Hoya (38-5, 30 KOs) was gearing up to fight Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs) Saturday night in Los Angeles, I was pretty happy to have Oscar back in the game after his loss to Floyd Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) and excited that former presidential candidates and business magnates have grown eager to jump into the ring, too. Needless to say my dreams of Tito Trinidad vs. Ross Perot and Joe Calzaghe-Ron Paul were quickly shattered when I discovered that Forbes’ claim to fame was not a financial magazine, but a loss on a reality TV show. Then I stopped caring.

YOU SHOULDN’T CARE, EITHER!

In fact, most dedicated boxing fans should stop caring, too. The fight is a precursor to the highly- (well, mildly-) anticipated rematch between De La Hoya and Mayweather in the fall, and an attempt to reinvigorate De La Hoya’s career and milk as much out of the Golden Boy’s cash cow before it dies. This fight somehow does more to offend the boxing community’s intelligence and judgment than that great paradigm of horrendous pugilistic failures, Hasim Rahman-Oleg Maskaev II. It presents us with an opportunity to watch a fading champion that, in continuing to fight while simultaneously drowning in his own growing fortunes, ridicules those elder fighters that do need the money take on a gourmet-prepared knockout meal for the former to gulf down in five or six rounds.