Why Was Oscar De la Hoya Acting So Sneaky?

by Charles Jay

I’m not in L.A. right now, so I did not have the opportunity to get to the last Hopkins-Dawson press conference.

From what I understand, through an account by John Scully, who is the trainer for Dawson, is that there were several speakers at the conference who spoke strictly in Spanish.

Honestly, what is that all about?

Everyone knows that the sport, for better or worse, has been based on ethnic identification – and that’s just the way it is.

It’s plain and simple. Whites identify with white fighters. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t ever hear anything about “white hopes.” Fights between black and white fighters have usually sold pretty well; the Gerry Cooney-Larry Holmes fight from almost thirty years ago comes immediately to mind.

Hispanics are very loyal fight fans, when it comes to following Hispanic fighters. And of course, there are subgroups within the Latin community. It would not be uncommon in Miami, as I recall when they had more significant fights there, for the Colombians to be feuding with the Dominicans, who feuded with the Cubans, who feuded with the Venezuelans, and so on.

But you’d be hard-pressed to explain to me what the special appeal of Hopkins-Dawson is to the Hispanic audience, to the point where they can hold a press conference, which, for lengthy periods of time, would have only Spanish-language speakers.

Remember, this promotion is scaled down, to an extent, HBO has put this promotion on pay-per-view, and there is a certain cost-consciousness in effect that demands the focus to be on the main event.

As you already know, the two participants in the main event are Africa-American, I’m not saying that they don’t have any appeal to the Hispanic community, but I’m sure it is not more than any other ethnic group. In fact, it may be less than some.

I could understand if it was one of those “Latin Fury” cards, or if it was a press conference specifically tailored for the Latin media, but it wasn’t. yes, I understand that there are some Latino fighters on the undercard, but nothing earth-shattering. And if HBO thought those fighters could draw anything on pay-per-view, they would have interviewed THEM, and not Hopkins and Dawson, on their last telecast.

I mean, this thing reportedly got rather ridiculous at one point. .

Gary Shaw, who happens to have a promotional contract with Chad Dawson, made mention of this, pointing out, correctly, that there should be some kind of translation available. It made perfect sense; after all, with a succession of Spanish speakers, how can anyone comment on what anyone else had to say? And if you are going to have a press conference, you want to be sure the greatest number of people can understand.

Then something very interesting happened. Oscar De la Hoya, the “face” of Golden Boy Promotions, which has a deal with Hopkins, got up and started speaking Spanish only, with a message that was directed at the specific constituency that could understand him. He wasn’t speaking about one of the undercard fights, but instead used the platform to say something that obviously had some ethnic overtones. It was intended to incite a particular response, and he got it, as at least one of the attendees castigated Shaw for, in effect, hating on Hispanics. Naturally, others felt compelled to pile on.

No translation was given, no explanation made.

There is something kind of sneaky about that, and it is also silly. That’s just the way to turn people off. That’s the kind of thing that causes divisiveness that doesn’t produce anything. In fact, it is counter-productive. It is symptomatic of what has transformed boxing, in the minds of many, to a “niche” sport, which has gone way beyond the traditional dynamic and is now too heavily invested in targeting specific groups, while – and here’s a big difference – leaving out others.

Certainly there is some kind of back end benefit in this thing for Hopkins, if sales do very well. Is Oscar De la Hoya even the slightest bit interested in selling this fight? The editor on this particular website says that there aren’t that many hits on the Hopkins-Dawson fight from readers. This kind of behavior doesn’t help all that much.

I mean, with “promoters” like that, who the hell needs critics for this game?