Image: Esther Lin/MMA Fighting
After months of teasing a comeback against a former UFC champion, boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya has apparently found his man in former light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort.
The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger first reported the news Thursday, saying the fight will be an exhibition held on Saturday, September 11th, likely in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be promoted by Triller who did the Ben Askren vs. Jake Paul boxing match.
Georges St. Pierre and Eddie Alvarez were other names rumored to take on De La Hoya throughout this year.
The 44-year-old Belfort (seen above) was last under contract with Asian-based MMA promotion ONE, but never fought for them. He hasn’t competed since May 2018 when he lost to Lyoto Machida at UFC 224 and retired afterward. He has 18 knockouts in 41 career MMA fights but hasn’t scored once since November 2015.
He does have one professional boxing match: an April 2006 first round TKO over Josemario Neves in Brazil and actually discussed going into business with De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions in 2008. At one point, he was going to box on this weekend’s now-postponed Triller fight card and has also talked about fighting Evander Holyfield this year.
The 48-year-old De La Hoya hasn’t competed since a December 2008 loss to Manny Pacquiao.
Belfort is the latest former MMA fighter to take advantage of the last celebrity boxing craze following in the footsteps of Askren, Floyd Mayweather and Tyron Woodley who will face Jake Paul later this year. Anderson Silva will step into the boxing ring this Saturday against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on the same card as his famous father.