Smart, Oscar, very smart.

From Boxing Central.com:

Oscar De La Hoya has confirmed that he will not retire. He is in the midst of planning a return to the ring. He will not continue as a middleweight though. He will not even be a light middleweight. Instead, De La Hoya will drop 2 weight classes to fight again as a welterweight. He originally left the division after stopping Arturo Gatti in March of 2001.

Speaking to the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia, De La Hoya said, "From 147 to 150, that's my natural weight. It's almost impossible to do something in the 154 or 160 divisions. It's too heavy for me."

The Golden Boy has not performed well above 150 pounds. Since he left the welterweight division he has gone 4-2. On top of that, one of the wins was a disputed one against Felix Sturm and another was a brawl with Fernando Vargas where Oscar was badly hurt a number of times. Under 150 his record is 33-2. The two losses were a split decision with Shane Mosley and a robbery against Felix Trinidad.

This move by De La Hoya puts an end to a potential rematch with Trinidad who is campaigning at middleweight. He said, "If he wants to come down, the door is open. But it would not be very intelligent from my part to go up in weight."

Oscar's getting his ass handed to him at the higher weights. It will be interesting to see what he can do back at the lower weight class. I guess he'll be going after Cory Spinks, but it would be interesting to see him fight Kermit Cintron.