Robert Garcia Says De La Hoya Does Well VS Cotto Under His Tutelage

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Oscar De La Hoya sent shockwaves through the boxing community when he announced on Power 106’s radio show that he thinks about coming back to boxing all the time. Most took it as speculation, others as a ploy. Hardly anyone took him serious. However, there are plenty of fans that have been supportive and want to see it. No one can argue there is isn’t a market.

 

Robert Garcia of the Robert Garcia Academy, and trainer of some of boxing’s best, recently stated in an interview with Thaboxingvoice.com’s Fernando Pimentel that he believes Oscar can do it. Not only that, but since Garcia has recently signed 3 of his top amateur prospects with Golden Boy Promotions he would actually consider training the original “Golden Boy.”

 

“We just signed three young amateur fighters with Oscar to Golden Boy Promotions, but now that I hear that (he’s talking about coming back), how come he hasn’t called me? I’ll train him,” Garcia told Pimentel.

 

In the interview, Pimentel jokingly suggested Garcia fight Oscar in his comeback fight, but Garcia laughed it off and said he’s never thought about a comeback since the day he retired. Robert then spoke candidly about Oscar’s realistic chances of making a successful comeback.

 

“I’d rather him call me and I would love to train him, especially now that we’re going to be working together with those fighters that I’ve signed and he’s going to be promoting. I’d be more than happy [to train him] if that’s in his mind. He’s 42, so he hasn’t fought in a few years. He’s still healthy, he’s in shape, and he’s never been out of shape. If he takes care of himself and stays healthy then why wouldn’t he be able to do it? I think he could.”

 

Garcia used fighters like Bernard Hopkins and Juan Manuel Marquez as examples of successful fighters competing at an older age, although he neglected to mention the laundry list of fighters that have done irreparable damage to their health and careers by staying too long.

 

After reminiscing about the old days when Robert and Oscar were in camps together and how Oscar was a hard worker, Garcia made a few suggestions on who Oscar could legitimately face, claiming that De La Hoya could defeat some of boxing’s current stars.

 

“It depends on what weight [he wants to fight at]. Mosley, maybe if we’re bringing [Oscar] out of retirement, let’s bring Fernando Vargas out of retirement. That would be huge fight. That was already a big fight.

“There’s fights out there. I wouldn’t pick fighters like GGG, but there’re active fighters Oscar can beat. I don’t see why Oscar wouldn’t do good against Cotto. Cotto’s very small, Oscar’s very fast.”