FAST on the Versace-clad heels of the car crash of an exhibition bout between former pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather Jnr and YouTuber Logan Paul, another boxing great of yesteryear, Oscar De La Hoya, has announced a date and opponent for his own return to the ring in an exhibition bout.

A worrying trend has thus now been entrenched with these wildly mismatched exhibition fights that are tantamount to freak shows and unedifying spectacles rather than legitimate sporting contests.

Consider the above-mentioned Mayweather-Logan Paul event. Held at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on June 6 over eight rounds with no judges present ringside and no winner declared at the end, Mayweather looked so bad it would have been a stretch to describe him as a mere shadow of his former self. 

The 44-year-old said afterwards that he’d hardly trained for the bout and boy did it show. Giving away 20 years in age difference, four inches in reach, and over 30lbs in weight to a YouTube prankster appearing for only the second time in a boxing ring — with his first bout against British YouTuber KSI — this was always going be an experiment in nonsense. 

Mayweather described the event as a “bank heist,” making abundantly clear where he places the boxing public in his esteem. Even so, one million people were sufficiently intrigued to fork out an outlandish $50 for the pay per view. One can only ponder how many shared the sentiments characterised by the chorus of boos which rang out from among the live audience at the Hard Rock Stadium at the final bell?

So now Oscar De La Hoya has decided that he too wants a piece of this action. Of course, as did his nemesis Mayweather before him, this former Olympic champion and six-division world champion has been at pains to point out that his comeback is not about money. It never is, is it?

De La Hoya’s last competitive fight before retiring saw him reduced to a human punch bag for an in-prime Manny Pacquaio. That was in 2008, 13 years ago, and it’s hard to imagine how the 48-year-old version will be able serve up anything more than the car crash his old rival, Floyd Mayweather Jnr, did against Logan Paul in Miami.

De La Hoya is scheduled to fight MMA fighter Vitor Belfort in Las Vegas on September 11. Of the match-up De La Hoya — who has a well-documented years-long struggle with alcohol and substance abuse to his name — recently stated: “I want to make the biggest comeback in boxing history. I want to get two of these fights down under my belt, and get the timing ready and everything, and then my third one, I want to call out Floyd Mayweather.”

This malarkey is getting decidedly silly. Boxing, by definition, is a young man’s game. No matter how conditioned a 48-year-old might be, reflexes and speed diminish in line with the ageing process. Without both functioning at optimum level in a boxing ring, you’re only putting yourself in harm’s way.

At this rate someone is going to get hurt, and when that happens the backlash against the sport will be justifiably severe. YouTubers are not fighters they are fame-hungry fools kidding themselves on. Former stars of the sport in their 40s engaging in these ridiculous exhibition bouts are no longer fighters they are desperate relics looking to cash in on legacies they are doing their utmost to denigrate and damage, along with the sport in which they established said legacies in the first place.

De La Hoya is currently conducting a very public and nasty feud with the one-time star of his promotional stable, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Perhaps it is here where the former feels the need to return to the ring, what with his acrimonious parting of the ways with boxing’s version of a golden calf depriving his promotional outfit, Golden Boy, of considerable revenue.

What cannot be gainsaid is that in his pomp Oscar De La Hoya was a tremendous specimen in the ring. This writer recently took the opportunity to watch his rematch with one of Mexico’s greatest, Julio Cesar Chavez. The fight took place on September 16 in Las Vegas and it was an absolute war, pitting boxing’s current pound for pound star in De La Hoya against its fading king in Chavez. 

On the night the speed, footwork, combination-punching and balance of De La Hoya was sublime as he peppered a frustrated Chavez with a whipping jab upstairs and down for the first half of the fight. In the fifth Chavez came back into things, successfully closing the distance and finding gaps in De La Hoya’s defence. In the sixth De La Hoya decided to plant his feet and trade up close, taking Chavez’s best shots yet refusing to yield by as much as a step back.

Back and forth the fight now swung as both men poured everything in and at points it was nip and tuck. In the end youth prevailed, proving too much for experience, and a brave but broken Chavez refused to come out of his corner for the ninth.

Legends of the sport such as Mayweather and De La Hoya should, in their ring dotage, view themselves as elder statesmen and custodians of the sport. Instead, with these exhibition antics, they violate whatever integrity the sport has managed to cling on to.