The Rome report

While boxing has declined in popularity over the past couple of decades, “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya was the most popular boxer on the planet.

That changed last Wednesday when De La Hoya retired. For the sport of boxing, this was both a good thing and a bad thing.

Let’s start with the bad.

Boxing has struggled in popularity since the mid-1990s. Corrupt judges and promoters, high Pay-Per-View prices and a lack of fights between top boxers has contributed to the decline of boxing.

When other boxers fought, no matter how talented they were, boxing still had few viewers. This wasn’t the case when “The Golden Boy” fought.

No boxer will match the popularity of De La Hoya.

Boxing fans fell in love with De La Hoya after he won a gold medal in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and they have followed his career ever since.

Every fight De La Hoya fought was a major event. People who weren’t boxing fans tuned in to watch “The Golden Boy.”

It didn’t matter whether De La Hoya was fighting a career journeyman or a world champion, people wanted to see him fight.

The numbers prove it.

De La Hoya is boxing’s Pay-Per-View sales king. De La Hoya’s 19 PPV fights sold over 14.1 million buys and over $696 million in revenue. Evander Holyfield is second in buys with 12.6 million and Mike Tyson is second in revenue at $545 million.

There is no current boxer who will put up those numbers.

Another reason De La Hoya’s retirement hurts the sport is because “The Golden Boy” fought all of the top competition. He didn’t always win, but he never hesitated to get into the ring with the best of the best.

De La Hoya fought boxing’s most elite including, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Julio Cesar Chavez, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, Pernell Whitaker, Felix Trinidad and Hector Camacho Sr. One would be hard pressed to look at a boxer’s record and see that many elite names. In a sport where the top fighters avoid one another, De La Hoya only wanted to fight the best.

But De La Hoya’s retirement isn’t all bad for the sport.

For the past five years, “The Golden Boy” was a part-time fighter. 2008 was the first year since 2004 where De La Hoya fought more than once.

A reason De La Hoya’s retirement is good for the sport is because “The Golden Boy” had a knack for holding the sport hostage.

Whenever De La Hoya came out of his mini-retirements, elite fighters in the 147, 154 and 160-pound weight classes avoided tough fights, hoping to get a crack at “The Golden Boy.”

This was because boxers were guaranteed their largest payday if they fought De La Hoya. When a boxer was a potential opponent for De La Hoya, the last thing that boxer wanted to do was lose to someone else and blow the opportunity to fight him.

Potential opponents for De La Hoya fought against fighters they knew they would beat, keeping their shot at “The Golden Boy” intact and depriving the boxing fans of a good fight against a quality opponent.

De La Hoya’s retirement will end this. Boxers know they don’t have De La Hoya to fall back on to increase their exposure and bank accounts. They know they will need to fight quality opponents to do this.

The boxing fans and I will miss “The Golden Boy,” but maybe his retirement is what the sport needs.