How Great Was Oscar De La Hoya?

[soul_survivor]

ATG, people are forgetting he was the best welterweight since Leonard/Hearns. He should have gotten the nod over Tito in what was day time robbery. He has guys like Whitaker, Quartey, Sr and so on, on his ledger. He even managed to win the WBA middleweight strap.

The guy was skillful, powerful and a box office draw who consistently fought the best.

Nothing less than ATG.

[bojangles1987]

I don't think he was quite great. But he was very good and very dangerous.

[bojangles1987]

ATG, people are forgetting he was the best welterweight since Leonard/Hearns. He should have gotten the nod over Tito in what was day time robbery. He has guys like Whitaker, Quartey, Sr and so on, on his ledger. He even managed to win the WBA middleweight strap.

The guy was skillful, powerful and a box office draw who consistently fought the best.

Nothing less than ATG.

He didn't "win" the WBA middleweight strap. He got a gift. I don't think he beat Quartey either, but that fight splits a lot of people.

[Pugilist95]

Atg. No one on Pacquiao/Floyds resume is better than Pernell, JCC Sr or Vargas. He should have also been handed the win against a steroid induced Shane Mosley and Tito Trinidad.

[BOXEO _]

ATG LEGEND!


Wins over Trinidad, Mosley (2nd fight), Vargas, Quartey, Whitaker, Gonzalez, Hernandez, the list goes on and on and on.


The man had balls of steel! He won his first belt at 130 and went on to challenged the 160 Undisputed Lineal Champion Bernard Hopkins (one of the best middleweights to ever lace up a pair of gloves) in 2004.


WAR OSCAR DE LA HOYA!!!

[Sugar Adam Ali]

a lot of fools on this thread... let me break it down for you in a timeline

92- gold medal olympian, turns pro under arum

93- in like his 4th fight he is fighting veteran jeff mayweather

94- invades 130 and beats molina and bredahl,, decent fighters especially for such a young fighter like oscar was

95- invades 135, blows away true world class fighters like ruelas, lieja, genaro

96- invades 140, absolutely destroys chavez in one of the biggest fights of the year.. chavez had been beaten by movers, but nobody and ever just blown him out and make him quit like oscar did..

97- invades 147 and fights his first true p4p opponent in pernell whitaker, defeats whitaker and dethrones the longtime welter champ..

98- arum milks oscar abit and has him fight camacho in dec 97, and chavez 2 in 98

99- oscar fights the top guys and unifies in the welter division, beats undefeated ike, and gets robbed vs undefeated tito.. also beats ova carr who is a legit contender at the time

2000- fights undefeated prime shane and loses in a super close fight, shane just had a little more in the tank down the stretch..

2001- blows out gatti and moves up to 154 and beats castellejo for a 154 belt

2002- long layoff, and comeback to unify 154 in a grudge match vs vargas.. vargas is roiled, beats up oscar early, but oscar shows great heart and comes back to stop vargas late

2003- gets robbed in the shane rematch

20004- goes all the way up to 160 and fights prime strum, gets a gift win, and then challenges the legendary hopkins for all the belts at 160

2005- sat out

2006- returns and shreds the wild man mayorga,, no one has ever blown out mayorga like oscar did...

2007- challenges the best fighter in the world floyd may weather, loses a close competitive decision

2008- fights manny, and drains himself making welter, and totally gets embarrassed.. retires


all in all, oscar fought nothing but the very best...

only fighter in history to fight 3 different guys that at the time were p4p #1.. hopkins, floyd, manny... No other boxer can even come close to that

also fought top 5 p4p guys like prime undefeated shane, prime undefeated tito, pernell...


To put that into perspective, he has fought more p4p guys than floyd, hopkins, and roy did combined....


No one goes thru oscar's schedule undefeated.. No one....

Gave the fans the biggest fights, year after year, for over a decade..

Never let networks or promoters stand in the way of making big fights


One of the greatest offensive fighters of All time..

A true warrior

Maybe not a top 50 ATG, but certainly a top 100 or so fighter in history

He was absolutely devastating at 135 and 140.. carried power all the way to 154....


If you don't think oscar is great then you really DKSAB

[boliodogs]

I thought Mosley and Trinidad were a little better. I thought Trinidad deserved to win a close one over Oscar and he was weight drained for that fight. He would have moved to 154 long ago but he stayed at 147 to fight Oscar and immediately moved to 154. Trinidad won his first 40 fights befor losing to Hopkins. He defended his welterweight title 15 times successfully including 12 KOs. Then he had 5 more championship wins at 154 and 160. It's a record Oscar can't match. Mosley was a great lightweight champ with 9 successful tittle defenses and 9 KOs. Oscar can't quite match Mosley's record either although I thought Oscar won the 2nd Mosley fight. Oscar refused to fight Trinidad at 154 and he would have clearly lost at that weight. This is just my opinion and nobody needs to quote me and tell me I am wrong because I am not changing my mind. Just give your own answer and leave me out of it.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

I thought Mosley and Trinidad were a little better. I thought Trinidad deserved to win a close one over Oscar and he was weight drained for that fight. He would have moved to 154 long ago but he stayed at 147 to fight Oscar and immediately moved to 154. Trinidad won his first 40 fights befor losing to Hopkins. He defended his welterweight title 15 times successfully including 12 KOs. Then he had 5 more championship wins at 154 and 160. It's a record Oscar can't match. Mosley was a great lightweight champ with 9 successful tittle defenses and 9 KOs. Oscar can't quite match Mosley's record either although I thought Oscar won the 2nd Mosley fight. Oscar refused to fight Trinidad at 154 and he would have clearly lost at that weight. This is just my opinion and nobody needs to quote me and tell me I am wrong because I am not changing my mind. Just give your own answer and leave me out of it.

your wrong!!!!!!!


no but for real, for every fight that people think he got a gift, there is a fight he got robbed, so i think it all evens out in the end run..

i personal feel in his close fights

whitaker- oscar won, and i thought he won clearly, never understood why this is a robbery,, pernell made him miss but never really made him pay, oscar dictated the action throughout the fight

Ike- super close,, ike was in full control late, and oscar needed a huge 12th round and he got it with a dramatic knockdown... I think it was a draw, but that last kd swinged it to oscar

tito- i thought oscar cleary won that fight.. gave away some late rounds but oscar clearly won 7 out of the first 9 rounds

shane 2- Oscar was robbed... Shane had a late rally, but oscar won most of the fight.. It was similar to cotto-shane, but if shane got the nod vs cotto...

sturm- Total gift decision

[JoeKidd]

Greater than Floyd. The guy sought after challenges. People need to realize fighters are not invincible. You can stay in your comfort zone and keep winning forever. Or you can step out of that comfort zone and risk getting beat up. De La Hoya looked out for the big fights. Even the great Hagler stayed within his comfort zone. If Duran had remained a lightweight, would he have been the greatest boxer ever lived?

[joseph5620]

a lot of fools on this thread... let me break it down for you in a timeline

92- gold medal olympian, turns pro under arum

93- in like his 4th fight he is fighting veteran jeff mayweather

94- invades 130 and beats molina and bredahl,, decent fighters especially for such a young fighter like oscar was

95- invades 135, blows away true world class fighters like ruelas, lieja, genaro

96- invades 140, absolutely destroys chavez in one of the biggest fights of the year.. chavez had been beaten by movers, but nobody and ever just blown him out and make him quit like oscar did..

97- invades 147 and fights his first true p4p opponent in pernell whitaker, defeats whitaker and dethrones the longtime welter champ..

98- arum milks oscar abit and has him fight camacho in dec 97, and chavez 2 in 98

99- oscar fights the top guys and unifies in the welter division, beats undefeated ike, and gets robbed vs undefeated tito.. also beats ova carr who is a legit contender at the time

2000- fights undefeated prime shane and loses in a super close fight, shane just had a little more in the tank down the stretch..

2001- blows out gatti and moves up to 154 and beats castellejo for a 154 belt

2002- long layoff, and comeback to unify 154 in a grudge match vs vargas.. vargas is roiled, beats up oscar early, but oscar shows great heart and comes back to stop vargas late

2003- gets robbed in the shane rematch

20004- goes all the way up to 160 and fights prime strum, gets a gift win, and then challenges the legendary hopkins for all the belts at 160

2005- sat out

2006- returns and shreds the wild man mayorga,, no one has ever blown out mayorga like oscar did...

2007- challenges the best fighter in the world floyd may weather, loses a close competitive decision

2008- fights manny, and drains himself making welter, and totally gets embarrassed.. retires


all in all, oscar fought nothing but the very best...

only fighter in history to fight 3 different guys that at the time were p4p #1.. hopkins, floyd, manny... No other boxer can even come close to that

also fought top 5 p4p guys like prime undefeated shane, prime undefeated tito, pernell...


To put that into perspective, he has fought more p4p guys than floyd, hopkins, and roy did combined....


No one goes thru oscar's schedule undefeated.. No one....

Gave the fans the biggest fights, year after year, for over a decade..

Never let networks or promoters stand in the way of making big fights


One of the greatest offensive fighters of All time..

A true warrior

Maybe not a top 50 ATG, but certainly a top 100 or so fighter in history

He was absolutely devastating at 135 and 140.. carried power all the way to 154....


If you don't think oscar is great then you really DKSAB

You seem to conveniently leave out the timing of those fights. Whitaker and Chavez were well past their best and Oscar clearly lost to Mayweather and Mosley 1 in spite of those bogus scorecards.

That running against Trinidad is not what a great fighter does. Oscar was good but padding his resume won't make him great.


Not close to being one of the best offensive fighters of all time either. Oscar never had much of a right hand and relied heavily on his left.