And the loser is ... boxing!

How much more hype could Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather have given for this less-than-great fight? Mayweather, like always, talked more about what he was going to do than he actually did. De La Hoya was the aggressor and still lost. (But he made a lot of money.)

Will we still pay to see these overhyped fights? People still bought tickets for “Rocky Balboa,” so I guess that answers my question.

JEFF CALZADA

Monterey Park

*

I watched the De La Hoya-Mayweather bout and came away with the feeling I’d been had. The Golden Boy -- who also promoted the fight (conflict of interest?) -- suddenly stopped throwing punches in the later rounds of a fight he was winning.

When Larry Merchant asked him why he quit throwing his jab in the post-fight interview, Oscar said, “I don’t know. I guess it wasn’t the night of the jab.”

Say what?

In the end, Floyd got the victory via a questionable split decision by the judges and another nice payday looms on the horizon for Golden Boy Promotions when the inevitable rematch is announced.

So much for “the fight that saves boxing.” Boxing needs to be saved from itself.

GINO CIRIGNANO

Marina del Rey

*

Congratulations, Oscar, on your financial success and winning the “safety belt” Saturday night. I assume it’s a big bright yellow one. The match should have been promoted as “The Big Frisk With No Risk!”

When Oscar needs help getting back to his corner at the end of Round 10, 11 or 12, then someone can write, “Oscar has the heart of a lion.” Lions fight to the death; Oscar seemed to be walking and talking just fine, post-fight.

I was a fan until I saw how fresh and barely winded Oscar was after the fight. This clearly indicates he did not risk much and give a full effort. He might have trained hard, but the world knows he didn’t push himself into the unknown on fight night.

STEPHEN W. BRIDGEWATER

Acton, Calif.

*

De La Hoya is the “Tiger Woods of boxing”? Maybe if Tiger had never won a major.

If anything, De La Hoya is the best-promoted fighter of all time and has always come up short against top-tier fighters in their prime (Trinidad, Hopkins, Mosley twice, now Mayweather).

Good looks and popularity don’t equal ability.

GLENN SUAREZ

Redondo Beach

*

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is blessed with great speed of hand and foot. He is a splendid defensive fighter. He beat Oscar De La Hoya, and if they fight again he will win again. But, as Emanuel Steward noted last Saturday night, Oscar is not a great fighter, surely not of the stature of Ray Leonard or the greatest of them all, Sugar Ray Robinson.

Mayweather lacks the power of many of history’s finest lightweights (Ike Williams, Roberto Duran, Alexis Arguello, to name only a few) and welterweights (Leonard, Thomas Hearns) and has not a shadow of the devastatingly electric one-punch knockout power that Robinson had with either hand when he fought at 147 pounds and later as a middleweight.

Mayweather’s vulgarity and denigration of his opponents mark him as lacking class and humility. Time will shut him up.

GORDON COHN

Long Beach

*

That hissing sound you hear is the air being let out of boxing’s balloon.

JONNY ENRIQUEZ

Buena Park

*

After watching the HBO special about De La Hoya and Mayweather, I thought it might be a good fight. After watching it -- thank God I didn’t pay for it -- I now know that HBO stands for “Help Boxing Out.”

At least with pro wrestling we know they are faking.

SAM RIZZARDO

Harbor City