By Cliff Rold

In this series, culminating with the May 2nd showdown between Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KO) and World Junior Welterweight champion Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KO) now only days away, Pacquiao’s previous title claims in five weight divisions were examined.  Identified were three lineal titles at Flyweight, Featherweight, and Jr. Lightweight.  Against Hatton, Pacquiao goes for overall title for lineal title number four.  How historically significant would it be?

In order to answer that question, the page now turns to the other men who have made claims to titles in four, five and six weight divisions, closing looking at how their championship accolades weather the weight of history.  Those men are:

Four Division Claimants

Roberto Duran - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19025

Pernell Whitaker - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19117

Roy Jones Jr. & Leo Gamez - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19243

Five Division Claimants

Sugar Ray Leonard - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19317

Thomas Hearns - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19427

Floyd Mayweather Jr. - https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=19516

And the lone Six Division Claimant

Oscar De La Hoya

With a tear in his eye, Boxing’s biggest star in recent times walked away from the game this April, 2009.  Like many before him, it took a beating to beat the game out of him but he’d long before established the credentials which will make him a lock for Hall of Fame enshrinement.  His career was covered in detail prior to his last fight, and loss, to Manny Pacquiao ( https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=17277 ) and here it will be his titles alone put under the microscope.  Oscar De la Hoya (39-6, 30 KO) was, still is, the only man to capture some share of a title in six weight classes.  Of those six, which truly merit a lineal tag?

The Title Reigns of Oscar

WBO Jr. Lightweight – TKO10 Jimmi Bredahl: Following a star making, Gold Medal turn at the 1992 Barcelona Games, De La Hoya turned pro and ran off eleven wins.  Those roots set the stage for a March 1994 shot at the feather fisted but then-undefeated (16-0) Bredahl in a bout which, given Oscar’s size and frame, might only have been possible in the era of the day before weigh-in.  He won in an occasionally competitive outing to capture his first major title but many fans will be forgiven if they can’t often recall Bredahl by name or confuse him with his more talented Bantamweight brother Johnny.  At 130 lbs. in 1994, the great Azumah Nelson (WBC), John John Molina (IBF), and Genaro Hernandez (WBA) were the established top of the class.  De La Hoya commendably faced two of the three…at Lightweight.  Forecast: Hazy, but a nice dress rehearsal as a champion

WBO Lightweight – KO2 Jorge Paez/IBF Lightweight TKO2 Rafael Ruelas: De La Hoya’s championship days got far more serious at 135 lbs. and so too did his economic pull.  He blasted out the veteran former Featherweight titlist Paez for a vacant WBO title to kick things off at the end of 1994 to lay the groundwork for the best year of his career.  So valuable was Oscar already to potential retirement funds that both Molina and Hernandez vacated their belts to follow him to 135 in 1995, taking home big checks and “L’s” for their trouble.  Between those two bouts, De La Hoya managed a second major title in what for many was a pick ‘em fight with IBF titlist Rafael Ruelas.  In less than six minutes, Oscar picked Ruelas apart in what for a long time stood as his best victory.  He furthered his standing by pancaking the then-reigning WBC 130 lb. titlist, Jesse James Leija, in two immediately after the Molina, Ruelas, and Hernandez fights.  By the end of the run, it was easy to believe Oscar was the best active Lightweight in the world…but there was one more fight at Lightweight which would have made an outright World championship concrete.  It did not happen.  Then-undefeated WBA titlist Orzubek Nazarov was a rugged pro in the midst of a five-year reign conducted largely overseas.  It wouldn’t necessarily have been an easy fight to make and, still in his first twenty fights, more risky than rewarding for De La Hoya.  It was also the difference in lineal recognition and merely having strong accolades behind alphabelt claims.  Forecast: Hazy, but what a 1995

World Jr. Welterweight – TKO4 Julio Cesar Chavez: Following his outstanding run at 135, De La Hoya rose in weight for the moment it seems every young star arrives at: the showdown with the aging legend.  At 96-1-1, Chavez fit the bill, then and perhaps forever the shadow against which all Mexican and Mexican-American pros struggle against.  De La Hoya opened a cut on Chavez in the first and thrashed the bloodied warrior for just about every second before the blood forced an end in the fourth.  There could be some argument that, in 1996, Chavez was no longer the fighter he once was (true) and was not really the best fighter in his class anymore (probably also true considering the presence of sole previous conqueror Frankie Randall).  Fair enough but neither addresses whether he was the proper champion.  If Chavez is recognized as the lineal champion at 140 following his 1990 win over Meldrick Taylor, and he should be even if he only unified two of the then three most recognized titles and kept only the WBC crown, then he entered the bout with De La Hoya in the midst of his second reign following a rematch victory over Randall in 1994.  To the victor goes the spoils; to Oscar passed the history.   Forecast: Clear, Lineal Claim to the World Title

World Welterweight – UD12 Pernell Whitaker: After Chavez, De La Hoya would defend once at 140 against undefeated former Lightweight titlist Miguel Angel Gonzalez before looking again up the scale.  Team Golden Boy’s eyes settled on what appeared to be the fading form of the best fighter of the 1990s, former Lightweight and then reigning Welterweight champion Pernell Whitaker.  It almost proved a dramatic mistake.  Still only 23 fights into his career, De La Hoya was often befuddled as he swung at the air, his hand speed unable to match the mind speed of Whitaker’s defensive genius.  It was a nightmare to score and the lopsided scores in Oscar’s favor at the end were a blight whether one thought De La Hoya deserved the win or not.  Regardless, even if only for the WBC belt, the title Whitaker wore could be traced in a straight line to the undisputed title showdown between Donald Curry and Milton McCrory in 1985.  Had Ike Quartey not been stripped of the WBA title prior to his 1999 fight with De La Hoya, Oscar would have unified prior to his still heavily debated loss to IBF titlist Felix Trinidad in the same year.  It is also notable that, following both the Trinidad and a Trinidad vacancy of the 147 lb. class, Oscar regained the WBC belt for a moment in defeating Derrell Coley in 2000 before losing the belt to Shane Mosley later that year.  Some, notably the Cyber Boxing Zone, regard that loss as the birth of the next lineage at Welterweight. Forecast: Clear, Lineal Claim to the World Title in his first reign

World Jr. Middleweight – UD12 Javier Castillejo:   Following the first loss to Mosley, Oscar took some time off before returning to stop Arturo Gatti in 2001 at 147 and then moving to 154 lbs. for a shot at WBC titlist Javier Castillejo.  He won eleven of twelve rounds on every scorecard with a knockdown to boot.  He’d add a WBA and Ring Magazine belt against Fernando Vargas in an eleventh-round, career best win a year later to strengthen his hold on the class.  Now, okay, Castillejo was a good fighter but no great challenge to De La Hoya and was certainly not on the level of some of the co-titlists (like Fernando Vargas and Trinidad) during Castillejo’s two-year reign.  However, lineage is not always about the best fighter at a given moment.  It’s about the man who beat the man whenever possible. 

So here’s the line.

On the same December 16, 1995 card which saw Terry Norris unify his WBC belt with Paul Vaden’s IBF belt, Carl Daniels upset Julio Cesar Vasquez for the WBA crown.  Norris held an easy knockout win over Daniels from a few years earlier.  Given the roll call of most notable champions on December 17 (Norris and Daniels), a lineage which had been hazy since the departure from the class of Tommy Hearns in the 1980s was cleared up.  Norris would be champion until 1999 when he suffered a colossal upset to Keith Mullings which cost him his crown and a planned money showdown with De La Hoya.  Mullings lost to Castillejo and so the lineage went until Winky Wright captured and then vacated it after defeating Shane Mosley (who’d defeated De La Hoya a second time in 1993) in 2004.  The lineage remains unsettled since Wright’s departure and Oscar rejoined the cast of titlists briefly from 2006-07, defeating Ricardo Mayorga for a WBC belt and losing it to Floyd Mayweather.  Forecast: Clear, Lineal World title in his first reign

WBO Middleweight – UD12 Felix Sturm: The less said about this title, the better.  Coming off the second Mosley loss, Oscar set his sights on the great Bernard Hopkins at Middleweight for a mega-money showdown in 2004.  He got some serious help on the road there, showing up in the worst shape anyone had ever seen him in and nearly blowing an intended tune-up bout with the then-undefeated WBO titlist Sturm.  The judges gave him a unanimous seven rounds to bail him out of what, at best, should have been a draw and he went on to be stopped in nine by Hopkins a few months later.  There was no shame in that nor does his foray at 160 lbs. add or detract much from his overall resume.  He gets points for trying as Middleweight was clearly not his class.  It’s important to note the following anyways: there was only one true ‘World Middleweight champion’ before the Sturm fight, after the Sturm fight, and through the Hopkins loss. 

Hopkins. 

Forecast: An incredibly hazy, unearned statistic

Add it all together and Oscar won ten major belts (eleven if one counts his Ring belt at 154) across six weight divisions.  Ultimately he would add his name to a very short list of men who held lineal World titles in three of the divisions they contested in.  It is worth pointing out that he was perhaps one win away from making it four at Lightweight and De La Hoya was the last man to make a run at the mark in challenging Hopkins.  He didn’t pull it off; neither has anyone else who ever got close. 

Pacquiao is next to scratch. 

In the final part of the series later this week, we will examine the less than a handful of fighters who have previously come close to the distinction of lineal World titles in four weight classes as well as some outstanding fighters who fell short of notching belts in four weight classes. 

To be concluded…

For Part I of this “Real History” Series and a look at Pacquiao’s previous title claims, log on to https://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&id=18886

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com