Oscar De La Hoya: ‘I Can Take Out Conor McGregor in Two Rounds’

The Golden Boy knows a payday when he sees one.

Oscar De La Hoya pointed to a fight with mixed-martial artist Conor McGregor as one that could lure him from retirement.

“I still have it in me,” De La Hoya claimed. “I’ve been secretly training, secretly training. I’m faster than ever and stronger than ever. I know I can take out Conor McGregor in two rounds.

“I’ll come back for that fight–two rounds. Just one more [fight], I’m calling him out. Two rounds, that’s all I need. That’s all I’m going to say. You heard it on Golden Boy Radio. Two rounds, that’s all I need.”

The remarks came on the debut of “Golden Boy Radio with Tattoo and the Crew,” a digital  radio program. Whether De La Hoya, a lineal champion in three weight classes, called out McGregor to put money in his pocket via listeners to his radio program or buyers of a pay-per view remains for the future to determine.

De La Hoya, who admits not standing a chance in a cage against McGregor, calls for a fight in a ring under boxing rules.

McGregor currently mulls a return to the UFC’s octagon to defend his lightweight title, likely against Tony Ferguson, or to compete in a rubbermatch against Nate Diaz. He stormed the cage in a fight in Ireland this weekend, making contact with a referee and causing mayhem. Whether these actions complicate or delay a return to mixed-martial arts, in which McGregor last competed in 2016, remains to be seen.

De La Hoya owns wins over Julio Cesar Chavez, Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, Ike Quartey, Fernando Vargas, Arturo Gatti, and Hector Camacho. And a decade ago, he gave Floyd Mayweather, who defeated McGregor in the tenth round in August, arguably his closest call in the ring.

But De La Hoya last fought nine years ago, when he looked slow and sluggish against Manny Pacquiao, who forced the bigger man to quit on the stool. Now a successful promoter of the likes of Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, the 44-year-old ridiculed the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor as more spectacle than competition. But it made dollars, so fighting McGregor now makes sense to the 1992 Olympic gold medalist.