A Tender Issue: De La Hoya Says Pain Had Him Fearing the Worst
His left arm tired and weak, Oscar De La Hoya said there was no other option than to shut down training and postpone his bout with Miguel Angel Gonzalez, originally scheduled for Oct. 12.
Last week, De La Hoya, the undefeated World Boxing Council super-lightweight champion, was found to have tendinitis in his left rotator cuff, and will undergo six weeks of therapy to strengthen the shoulder. The Gonzalez bout has been rescheduled for Jan. 18.
“I lost about maybe 40% of my power in my jab and I felt it,” De La Hoya said of his recent sparring sessions at his Big Bear camp. “I felt that I lost speed and power. When I would throw my jab, it would do no damage at all. [The left arm] would get fatigued in, like, one round and I would have to carry it near my waist.”
De La Hoya, 23, acknowledged that, with the pain and fatigue dating back to his September, 1995, bout with Genaro Hernandez, he feared the worst.
“Yeah, I was scared,” De La Hoya said. “But the doctor told me, ‘Hey, it’s nothing. It’s something that can we can get back in good shape.’ ”
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