Oscar De La Hoya Hospitalized for Covid; Evander Holyfield Ready to Rumble

Breaking News: Oscar De La Hoya has announced that he has been diagnosed with Covid-19, notwithstanding the fact that he is fully vaccinated. De La Hoya announced the news on social media: “I am currently in the hospital getting treatment and am confident I will be back in the ring before the year is up. God bless everyone and stay safe.” The announcement was accompanied with a video taken at his hospital bed. His voice was hoarse.

The announcement comes eight days before De La Hoya, 48, was scheduled to return to the ring after a 13-year absence. He had been training for a fight with Brazil native Vitor Belfort, 44, a former MMA star. They were to meet in an 8-round match at the Staples Center in Los Angeles where they would headline a show titled, “Triller Fight Club Presents Legends II: De La Hoya vs. Belfort Plus Top Musical Acts.”

Various sources are reporting that Evander Holyfield will take De La Hoya’s place. Holyfield, who once owned the largest mansion in Georgia, has been pushing hard for inclusion on the “legends” platform. He last fought in 2011 in Copenhagen where he stopped fellow greybeard Brian Nielsen in the 10^th round. In a career that spanned parts of four decades, Holyfield, now 58, answered the bell for 443 rounds.

The fly-in-the-ointment is the California Athletic Commission which may not license him. If so, Triller honcho Ryan Kavanaugh says the entire show may pack up and move to Florida. The CAC agreed to sanction De La Hoya vs Belfort as a bona fide prizefight, but the first “legends” match that fell under their jurisdiction, Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr, had to be branded an exhibition. The match reportedly attracted $1.6 million pay-per-view buys which, if true, made it the top seller of 2020.

Evander’s son Evan Holyfield, a promising junior middleweight with a 7-0 (5) record, has signed to appear on Top Rank’s Oct. 23 show in Atlanta topped by a 130-pound unification fight between Jamel Herring and Shakur Stevenson. The event will be staged at State Farm Arena, home of the city’s NBA team. A statue of Evan’s dad now sits near the entrance to the arena. The Evander Holyfield statue was unveiled on June 21 of this year.

If the event falls apart, that would be more bad news for super featherweights Andy Vences and Jono Carroll who were scheduled to meet in a 10-round contest in the chief supporting bout. San Jose’s Vences (23-2-1, 12 KOs) and Ireland’s Carroll (19-2-1, 5 KOs) were initially supposed to fight on June 19 in Miami but the event was cancelled when headliner Teofimo Lopez came down with Covid.

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Oscar De La Hoya photo credit: Cris Esqueda

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