It was an emotional request. Oscar De La Hoya had barely lost the richest boxing match in history by one judge's 12th-round score when he was met by his wife, Millie, telling him she was pregnant with their second child and asking him to end his fighting career.
More than three months after his split-decision loss to unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr., De La Hoya, 34, said Friday he has yet to convince his wife that he should fight again but proclaimed, "I'm not retired."
De La Hoya spoke excitedly about a boxing future that could include a Mayweather rematch, or, more to the Golden Boy's liking, a May bout with England's Ricky Hatton.
"I still have one big obstacle to get past," De La Hoya said of his wife. "That's going to be the toughest fight of my life."
Yet, De La Hoya, appearing at the Beverly Hills Hotel to co-promote with his recent bitter rival and former promoter Bob Arum an Oct. 6 super-featherweight fight between Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera, said he expects Millie's retirement stance to soften by early next year.
Their child's due date is Dec. 29. By then, De La Hoya will have seen two fights play out that probably will generate his next opponent: the Dec. 8 super-welterweight title bout between Mayweather and Hatton, and a Nov. 10 welterweight title fight between Puerto Rico's unbeaten champion Miguel Cotto and Pomona's Shane Mosley, whom De La Hoya has lost to twice.
"Cotto is out of the question," De La Hoya said. "My wife [a singing star] is the pearl of Puerto Rico. She has said, 'Don't fight another Puerto Rican.' "
The De La Hoyas live in Puerto Rico with their young son.
But after earning an estimated $50 million in a Mayweather fight that generated a record 2.15 million pay-per-view buys and $120 million in revenue to make De La Hoya the most financially successful pay-per-view draw of all time, future high-profile bouts are proving too attractive to bypass, De La Hoya said.
"I went back home and watched the [Mayweather] fight with my wife, and alone," De La Hoya said. "I didn't feel like the loser, not from what I watched. I pressed that fight, but Mayweather's a master at what he does. He's slippery.
"And not for a second did I think I wanted to retire after that fight. I'm leaving doors open. I had a discussion with my wife about it, and I told her I wanted to erase that fight from my record books. I know there are good arguments on both sides of me retiring, but I want to leave this sport with exciting fights, fights where the fans are looking at the faces of both guys afterward and knowing, 'Those guys were in a heck of a fight.' "
