De La Hoya, Mayweather Sr. Part Ways Again

For a man given to singing the praises of Floyd Mayweather Sr. as the greatest trainer in the world, Oscar De La Hoya sure doesn’t seem to care very much about having Daddy Floyd in his corner come fight night. News is out today that De La Hoya will opt for a different trainer for his fight with Manny Pacquiao in December now that Floyd Sr. has signed to work with Ricky Hatton for his fight with Paulie Malignaggi in late November.

Mayweather Sr. has said that he only took the Hatton gig because Oscar hadn’t talked to him in months and he didn’t even know if he had a job for the Pacquiao fight and hey look ... can a man get a lap-dance over here or what? Meanwhile, Oscar, in keeping with his tradition of preposterous explanations, says that he blames himself for losing Floyd Sr.’s services to Hatton because he just never got around to contacting him about the Pacquiao fight.

This is, of course, utterly ridiculous, more of Oscar’s disingenuous doublespeak from the same font of reason that would have us believe he doesn’t want to fight Tony Margarito because it would be disrespectful to Paul Williams. As if a fighter of Oscar’s caliber with the organization around him that Oscar ha --, one of the most evolved and expensive organizations in sports -- just forgets to contact his trainer of choice about an upcoming multi-million-dollar superfight.

Obviously Oscar wanted to go another way than Floyd Sr. without having to answer questions as to why he is eschewing the man he so often has called the best in the business. The reason for that may lie with the trainer he is opting for instead of Big Floyd, because the rumor now is that the Golden Boy will seek the services of Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain. Nacho is considered by many to be the best Mexican trainer in the game, the legendarily unconventional mastermind behind Mexican greats like Daniel Zaragoza, Rafael and Juan Manuel Marquez.

With every move that De La Hoya makes it's more and more clear that his primary goal in what few fights he has left in his career is to court and solidify his stormy and tenuous relationship with Mexican fight fans.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.