22 year old Super Bantamweight prospect Diego De La Hoya (17-0, 9 KOs), cousin of legend Oscar De La Hoya, makes his main event debut on the ongoing Golden Boy on ESPN fight series in Tuscon, Arizona against 16-6-1 (6 KOs) Erik Ruiz.
De La Hoya is coming off an eight round decision win against journeyman Roberto Pucheta (10-10-1, 6 KOs) on the off tv undercard of David Lemiuex’s public execution of Curtis Stevens. I was there in person and I can say it wasn’t a terribly inspiring performance. He won clearly and somewhat easily, but Pucheta was able to land decent shots pretty consistently while De La Hoya was largely unable to hurt him. Instead he won largely on volume against a guy who now has a .500 record.
Still, De La Hoya is only 22 and has that name. He will be relevant for a while and it is up to his cousin and promoter, Oscar, to match him in a way that keeps him in the limelight while avoiding too much risk for his limited abilities at this stage of his career. Golden Boy on ESPN will likely be a good vehicle for doing just that over the next two years.
Erik Ruiz has fought opponents at a higher level than Diego has, particularly Jessse Magdaleno and Rico Ramos, but he hasn’t been competitive at that level. Instead he beats about the same level of opponents as De La Hoya has so far. This fight wouldn’t be happening if Golden Boy Promotions thought Ruiz was a real threat here, so he probably isn’t, but they still have to fight the fight on May 18th.
