Though Oscar De La Hoya is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, his social media use has raised a few eyebrows over the years.
And a recent post from De La Hoya has got boxing fans in a stir, and is perhaps more of his most outlandish claims yet.
The Mexican simply predicted that a fighter would one day fight for a world title; though it wasn’t directed towards a fledging light in his own stable like William Zepeda, Vergil Ortiz or Ryan Garcia.
It was actually polarising YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul who De La Hoya was referring to, taking to Twitter to say
“Thank you Jake Paul for introducing young fans to the sport I love the most. You have a lot of s*** to work on in the ring but in time I believe you will challenge for a world title.”
Thank you @jakepaul for introducing young fans to the sport I love the most. You have a lot of shit to work on in the ring but in time I believe you will challenge for a world tittle.
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) August 6, 2023
Though there may be some truth to the sentiment expressed by De La Hoya in the first part of his post where he references Paul bringing new young eyeballs to the sport, it is difficult to imagine a world where he challenges for one of the four majorly recognised world titles.
Stranger things have happened, though – it is boxing.
Paul took his professional record to 7-1 this past weekend at the American Airlines Centre in Dallas, outpointing former UFC star Nate Diaz over ten rounds, who was making his boxing debut.
It was ‘The Problem Child’s first outing since his defeat to Tommy Fury in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.