De La Hoya vs Jake Paul - Is this potential clash the biggest fight in boxing?

While this weekend sees a fight between Jake Paul and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, there has been some speculation on this site about whether a future bout could be made between ‘The Problem Child’ and ‘The Golden Boy’.

It makes for an interesting if bizarre proposition.

First, to get past the elephant in the room – De La Hoya is 52 years old and his highest weight was at 160lbs when he went against Felix Sturm in 2004. He may have put a few pounds on since then, but that would not be good weight.

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Paul, on the other hand, is 28 and is set to fight at the 200lb weight division this weekend. And in his last fight, against the even more-aged Mike Tyson, Paul weighed in at 227.25lbs. That is a huge, probably insurmountable weight difference between him and De La Hoya.

De La Hoya has also largely been inactive since his retirement following a battering from Manny Pacquiao in 2008. In fact, his only action since that time has been exhibitions against retired basketball star Shaquille O'Neal and actor/presenter Mario Lopez in 2009 and 2016.

Cris Esqueda/Golden Boy/Getty Images

The only time De La Hoya has looked like seriously returning to the ring was an aborted 2021 match against former UFC star Vitor Belfort. That fight, originally set for 2021, was shunted out of the way due to the Covid-19 pandemic and never rescheduled.

De La Hoya has also struggled with addiction. Not long after the end of his boxing career, in 2011, he confessed that he had been attending addiction meetings due to problems with cocaine and alcohol.

He may be in a better place in 2025, but that does not mean he can turn back the clock on his body. For a fighter, the most-salient word in the phrase ’52-year-old man’ is the word ‘old’.

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A fight between Jake Paul and De La Hoya would generate interest. Paul has 28.4m followers on Instagram, De La Hoya has a comparatively modest 1.2m. On Twitter, Paul has 4.7m followers, while De La Hoya’s count is just short of 1m. There is enough there to bring in the eyeballs of casual fans.

All of that would be helped along by a good marketing campaign, like the one that tried to convince the world that an old Mike Tyson was the Mike Tyson of old.

But, more pertinently, a match with De La Hoya would not shift the needle on any ambitions that Paul has to win a world title. And that seems to be the direction that the social-media star is looking to head in.

Even the ‘Golden Boy’ admitted this week that a world title may be in Paul’s future.

Speaking to the Ariel X Ade show on DAZN this week, De La Hoya offered a cagey prediction.

He said: “I think he can win a world title. It’s obviously going to take time. That’s all it going to take. Time and experience. Facing JCC Jr, world champion, twelve rounds with Canelo—that’s experience for him. If he passes that test - let’s say he knocks out Chávez Jr. in the later rounds. It’ll be a huge confidence boost for Jake Paul. It’ll silence a lot of doubters… Not all of them, but it will silence a lot of doubters. And then he can move on to that next challenge. That next challenge is possibly a top 10 in the world.”

And in a frankly bizarre prediction on Instagram, De La Hoya said he thought Paul would beat Chavez by split decision over twelve rounds after a back-and-forth fight.

At this point, it seems less likely that a Paul-De La Hoya fight will materialise than of Paul aiming for a world-title at cruiserweight by aiming for Badou Jack. Paul may then look to the winner of any future bout between Opetaia and Gilberto Ramirez (who, not so coincidentally fights on the undercard of Paul-Chavez Jr).

Jake Paul vs Julio Cesar Chavez Jr will be streamed exclusively on DAZN PPV, Saturday, June 28. Buy the PPV now here.