Oscar De La Hoya on Floyd Mayweather teasing a fight in RIZIN: ‘it’s ridiculous’

For about three days, the combat sports world was set into a frenzy thanks to the announcement of all-time boxing great, Floyd Mayweather vs Japanese kickboxing prodigy Tenshin Nasukawa at RIZIN 14 on New Year’s Eve.

Why for only three days? Well, that’s because the ‘blindsided’ Mayweather would call the fight off.

This didn’t end up being all too surprising to many fellow fighters and some even commented on why they believe the fight was apparently so short lived. One of which being a new MMA promoter and former opponent of Mayweather’s, Oscar De La Hoya.

“I think he just wants attention.” De La Hoya told MMAJunkie, “That’s all it is, and Floyd is a fighter who should just stick to boxing. I don’t think he’ll ever step into the cage. Making up these special rules, it’s ridiculous. If you’re going to box, then box inside the ring. If you want to become an MMA fighter, why limit yourself and set the rules so there’s no kicks or grappling?

If you want to get involved and be in the MMA world, then do it. Don’t set the rules. I just think he should stick to boxing. That’s what he knows best. But he can’t help himself. If he ever fights a Khabib [Nurmagomedov] inside the octagon, come on, we all know what’s going to happen. That fight’s going to end in one minute or 30 seconds.”

It definitely seemed like an interesting situation especially when considering that it would take place under RIZIN rather than the usual Mayweather Promotions. However, RIZIN still seems to be trying to salvage the possibility of making something work between Mayweather and Tenshin.

Regardless, De La Hoya just believes that Mayweather is too smart to put himself in a situation like this one.

“Floyd is a fighter who knows how to pick and choose his opponents at the right time for his benefit. When he fought Conor McGregor, the reason why I was hugely against it is because it was unfair to Conor. It was totally unfair to Conor McGregor. I mean, Conor is not a boxer. He’s not a boxer fighting 12 rounds, and it was totally unfair, but these are the things that Floyd does to his advantage.”

De La Hoya’s first MMA event will be taking place next Saturday on November 24 in Inglewood, California as it will feature the return of ‘The Iceman’ Chuck Liddell as he faces Tito Ortiz for the third time.

on 11/12/2018