Oscar De La Hoya's Final Fight: The Only Way He Should Go Out

Floyd Mayweather retired and with that put an end to the possibility of a rematch between himself and Oscar De La Hoya. Thus, what would have been one of the biggest grossing fights in history has been cancelled...again.

Since that day De La Hoya has been actively looking for a replacement—a name which would be just as big and a fight which would garner just as much attention.

The first idea, Miguel Cotto, seemed perfect. He is an undefeated, highly popular Puerto Rican fighter with KO power in both hands. He has a vicious body attack and all the tools to set up a monstrous final fight for De La Hoya.

Even better was the fact that Cotto was set to face Antonio Margarito in July in a fight that would likely have determined the best welterweight on the planet.

The stage was set. Cotto would defeat Margarito and set up a huge mega-fight against De La Hoya for De La Hoya's final hoorah. But there was just one problem: Antonio Margarito.

Floyd Mayweather turned down $8 million rather than fight this man, and the same man ruined Oscar's plans by knocking out Miguel Cotto in the 11th round and giving him his first lost.

To be perfectly fair, Miguel Cotto was by far the technically superior fighter. He utilized better head movement, slipped punches, threw the more technical blows, and has had better hand and foot speed. Max Kellerman described the fight as a battle of "skill vs. will" and that was exactly what it came down to.

Antonio Margarito, though outclassed in the pure boxing aspect, simply was too big, too strong, and too determined. He bullied the smaller Cotto around by consistently applying a huge amount of pressure and backing him up the entire fight. It came down to the fact that Margarito couldn't be hurt while throwing a million punches.

This left Oscar searching for a new opponent, and somehow he came across former flyweight champion and current lightweight champion Manny Pacquiao. When it was first announced that Oscar De La Hoya would be facing Manny, I couldn't believe it.

At the very best, Oscar could get down to 147 lbs. which would be the welterweight limit—a full two weight classes over the weight class that Manny Pacquiao has just moved up to (135 lbs.).

Thankfully, Pacquiao's people wouldn't settle for a 70/30 split and (hopefully) this fight is off. It would be terrible for Oscar to go out against a fighter who is clearly much smaller than he is. So the question remains, who will Oscar fight?

One thing is for certain. Like Floyd Mayweather, he wants no piece of Antonio Margarito. This is a shame because Oscar has always built his entire career on facing the very best fighters out there and not ducking anyone.

If he indeed is looking for the best 147 lbs. fighter available for his final fight he need not look any further than Antonio Margarito.