This whole Oscar/Pac debacle has led me to a conclusion I feel wasn’t far off anyway.
I simply do not like Oscar De La Hoya. I do not respect Oscar De La Hoya any more, and I don’t think I will bother with any of his fights from here on in. I’ll boycott him like I boycotted B-Hop before the Calzaghe fight.

In certain cases, it’s only so long before who a fighter is starts to overshadow how good the fighter is. Aesthetic over substance, if you will.

When this point has been reached, you have to decide if you like that person, as that is the most prominent part of what you see. With other fighters such as Lennox Lewis, it was always about how good he was. Same with Roy Jones (who was so good that even his massive personality was overshadowed by his talent), Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Antonio Margarito, Marco Antonio Barrera, Larry Holmes, I could go on for ages. These were all boxers who relied on being good IN the ring.

Oscar has let what goes on outside the ring dictate his decisions far too much in recent times. With a Tyson, an Ali, a Prince Naseem, a Ricky Hatton, it seemed that being a massive personality outside of the ring was more of an included bonus, it added something to the overall package. The stuff outside of what they did when they laced up didn’t detract from them as fighters, it made them more appealing to watch.

With Oscar, it doesn’t. Plain and simple. With Oscar you feel that he really doesn’t care about how good he is in the ring any more. his prime concern is just getting in, getting out without a scratch, and banking as much money as possible. All well and good, as these are most fighters’ intentions, but they don’t allow those intentions to completely dictate choice of opponent.

Now, to be blunt, I can't stand Ricardo Mayorga, or Bernard Hopkins, or Junior Witter, or Andrew Golota, because 'who they are' mattered more than how good they are/were, and I didn't particularly like 'who they are'. I don't respect any of the images I have of these fighters as people, and since these images are more prominent than the images of the fighters as fighters, it seems to me to become less relevant that they ARE fighters. So I stopped watching them, unless they were fighting a real fighter that I already enjoyed for their own sake. I just don't like to watch circus acts who dress themselves up as fighters.

In this case, now that the Oscar we are seeing is really exposed as being simply a money grabbing, cowardly, publicity seeking, deceitful (and yes, with regard to some of his “Pac: It’s personal” crap, I do feel that is the right word), conceited, self-absorbed sponge, I have decided I don’t like the guy. And since, unlike previous ‘bad’ caricatures such as Tyson, I have no respect for what the guy does in the ring either, I feel this is the point to metaphorically walk away from him. (Actually, that point was just before the Forbes fight, but, then again, isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing…..)

Enjoy your limelight, Oscar. You deserved it, once.