Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr., billed as ''The World Awaits'', was a super welterweight superfight that took place on May 5, 2007, at the

MGM Grand Arena The MGM Grand Garden Arena (originally known as the MGM Grand Garden Special Events Center) is a 17,000-seat multi-purpose arena located within the MGM Grand Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip. Sporting events From its opening on December 18, 1993 ...

in Las Vegas, Nevada between six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya and undefeated four-division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.. At the time, the bout was the most lucrative boxing match ever, with over $130 million in generated revenue. Mayweather Jr. won by

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split dec ...

over De La Hoya in 12 rounds, capturing the

WBC WBC may stand for: Business *Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, a former large India broadcaster now folded into CBS *Westpac (New Delhi Exchange code: WBC), a multinational Financial services company *Wholesale Broadband Connect, BT Wholesale's ...

super welterweight title.

Details

The fight took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada under the promotion of Golden Boy Promotions. It was contested at 154 pounds, with De La Hoya defending his WBC light middleweight championship. Tickets sold out three hours after they went on sale on Saturday, January 27, 2007. With the sellout, the bout generated over $19 million in live gate, beating the previous record of $16,860,300 set by the June 28, 1997, heavyweight championship rematch between

Evander Holyfield Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and is the on ...

and

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...

at the Thomas & Mack Center. The fight was televised on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

, with the cost to watch the fight at $55 in the U.S. Mayweather won by a split decision in 12 close-fought rounds, capturing the World Boxing Council (WBC) title. Judges Jerry Roth (115–113) and Chuck Giampa (116–112) scored the fight for Mayweather while judge Tom Kaczmarek had De La Hoya winning, 115–113.

Hype

As part of the buildup for the fight,

produced an unprecedented four-part prelude. The series, titled ''De La Hoya-Mayweather 24/7'', aired installments on the final three Sundays of April, with the fourth installment airing on Thursday, May 3, two days before the fight. The series focused on each fighter's training and preparation for the bout. A subplot to the fight concerned whether De La Hoya would be trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr., the estranged father of Mayweather Jr. Mayweather Sr. had served as De La Hoya's trainer since 2001. Mayweather Sr. announced his willingness to train De La Hoya after initially declining to oppose his son, but demanded a $2 million fee in light of the enormous revenue to be generated by the fight. De La Hoya declined to meet Mayweather Sr.'s demands, making a counteroffer of $500,000 guaranteed plus an additional $500,000 contingent on De La Hoya winning the fight. Ultimately, the sides were unable to come to an agreement and De La Hoya hired the highly respected Freddie Roach to be his cornerman instead. Although Mayweather Sr. reunited with his son at the start of Floyd Jr.'s training camp, he had no official role, as Floyd Jr. opted to retain his uncle, Roger Mayweather, as his trainer instead. Mayweather Sr. left the camp by the end of April, upset over not being chosen as trainer and by comments made by his son and brother during the taping of the ''24/7'' show.

Undercard

Result

*Result: Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats Oscar De La Hoya by split decision

Fight earnings

The De La Hoya-Mayweather fight set the record for most PPV buys for a boxing match with 2.4 million households, beating the previous record of 1.99 million for

Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson II Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II, billed as ''the Sound and the Fury'' and afterwards infamously referred to as ''The Bite Fight'', was a professional boxing match contested between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson on June 28, 1997, for the ...

. Around $136 million in revenue was generated by the PPV. It was surpassed in 2015 by

Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, billed as the ''Fight of the Century'' or the ''Battle for Greatness'', was a professional boxing superfight between undefeated five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and eight-division world ...

, which generated more than 400 million dollars from 4.6 million households in PPV buys, thus becoming the most lucrative fight in history and one of the most lucrative sport events of all time. Factoring in the percentages, Mayweather earned $25 million for the fight whereas Oscar De La Hoya ended up earning $52 million, the highest purse ever for a fighter at the time. Mayweather ended up surpassing those earnings in 2013 with a purse of $88 million for Mayweather vs. Álvarez. The previous record had been $35 million, held by Tyson and Holyfield.

September 20 rematch

De la Hoya and Mayweather were scheduled for a rematch on September 20, 2008. However, unlike the first fight, the fight would have been contracted for 147 lbs. or the welterweight limit. The first fight was contracted at

light middleweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the IBF or super welterweight in the WBA an ...

or 154 lbs and de la Hoya's

junior middleweight title was on the line. However, Mayweather would have come in as champion and defended his WBC/ The Ring welterweight titles. As a tune-up fight, De la Hoya fought Stephen Forbes (33–6) on May 3, with Floyd Mayweather Sr. as his trainer. De La Hoya (39–5, 30 KOs) looked extremely sluggish but ultimately won a unanimous decision over Forbes, 119–109, 119–109 and 120–108. The rematch never took place due to Mayweather's retirement in 2008 and De La Hoya's retirement in 2009, although Mayweather would return to boxing in 2009, eventually retiring for good in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De La Hoya, Mayweather Mayweather 2007 in boxing Boxing in Las Vegas 2007 in sports in Nevada Golden Boy Promotions May 2007 sports events in the United States Boxing matches involving Floyd Mayweather Jr. MGM Grand Garden Arena Nicknamed sporting events Events in Paradise, Nevada