Champion Mayweather Announces Retirement

A winner announced his retirement but a loser couldn’t leave the ring.

Floyd Mayweather (30. U.S.) beat “golden boy” Oscar De La Hoya (34) on points in one of the highest-grossing fights ever in the 21st Century.

Winning the fight, Mayweather announced his retirement right away, saying, “I’ve achieved everything in boxing. I earned big money. I’ll no longer box.” However, Hoya said, “I’ll analyze today’s match again. I will decide on retirement after reviewing whether my punches and movements were really lacking.”

Mayweather won the championship, beating Hoya 2-1 (113-115,120-116,115-113) in the WBC (World Boxing Council) super welterweight title match. The match was held in at the MGM Grand Garden arena in Las Vegas yesterday.

With his victory, Mayweather became the first boxer to win all five weight categories (WBC super welter, light, super feather, super light and IBF welter weights) with a clean record (no defeats). Mayweather has a record of 38 wins and no defeats (24 KO wins). De la Hoya, who won belts in six weight categories, now has a record of 38 wins (30 KO) and 5 losses. Hoya was aggressive from the beginning, as if he was intent on beating his opponent early on. However, Mayweather slipped away every time Hoya tried to land a barrage of punches on him with supple and fast movements. Mayweather waited for de la Hoya to grow tired and steadily gained points by making counterattacks against his opponent from time to time.

The match between Hoya and Mayweather was a big event that grabbed the fans’ attention at a time when boxing’s popularity is falling. Nevertheless, the excitement of the fight fizzled out as Mayweather didn’t actively attack. The bout failed to live up to the expectations of the fans, who had been waiting for the big match up for a long time. Foreign media outlets and fans wanted a “great match,” but they didn’t get what they wanted. In the end, Mayweather, who focused on getting points during much of the bout, won the victory.

Hoya and Mayweather earned 23.2 billion won and 11.1 billion won in fight money, respectively. Mayweather later said, “De la Hoya was the greatest boxer of our time and was tough, but he didn’t hurt me. De la Hoya claimed, “I threw more punches and was more aggressive. I think I won the fight.”

bluesky@donga.com