Former boxing great Oscar De La Hoya said Friday he has been hospitalised after contracting COVID-19, forcing cancellation of his one-off comeback bout against Vitor Belfort next week.

De La Hoya, 48, said in a video posted on Twitter that he had been admitted to hospital for treatment despite being fully vaccinated.

“Wanted you to hear directly from me that despite being fully vaccinated, I have contracted Covid and am not going to be able to fight next weekend,” De La Hoya said. 

“Preparing for this comeback has been everything to me over the last months, & I want to thank everyone for their tremendous support.”

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.