By Bill Calogero
The Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Oscar De La Hoya fight was a great one. It actually lived up to all of the pre-fight hype, but I for one believe the decision was wrong. The fight was a draw. It’s that simple.
The fight started out a little differently than I personally thought it would. During the first round, Floyd was the aggressor and on my scorecard, won the round. Both fighters landed punches but nothing really significant.
During the second round, it was De La Hoya who was the aggressor. He was able to cut the ring off and land multi-punch combinations to the head and body of Mayweather. Floyd was forced to go into a “defensive” mode. De La Hoya wins the round.
In the third and fourth rounds, Oscar was able to get Floyd against the ropes and score big with punches while Mayweather was forced to cover up. De La Hoya pounded both sides of Mayweather’s body with powerful left and right hooks. Floyd began to mount his own offensive attack, attempting to bully Oscar. It did not work, but nonetheless, these two rounds were exciting to watch. Oscar wins both rounds.
The fifth round had Mayweather begin to establish his jab, which gave him the ability to score with right-left-right combinations. Oscar had Floyd against the ropes and was able to land a solid right cross when he cornered his opponent but for the most part, Floyd was able to stay moving and began to avoid punches. Swelling begins to form by De La Hoya’s right eye. Oscar wins the round based on landing the harder shots.
Round six was hard to score, but what I saw was Oscar bully Floyd against the ropes battering his body and occasionally landing solid two and three punch combinations to Floyd’s head. De La Hoya also demonstrated his own defensive skills, avoiding most of the punches Mayweather threw at him.
Rounds seven through eleven were all close. Mayweather was now fighting the fight he should have from the first round and De La Hoya stopped doing what was working for him.
Mayweather used his superior hand speed to use his jab very effectively. He was able to keep Oscar far enough away to score with the jab and occasionally mix in a solid shot here and there. For some reason, even though he was successfully using his jab, doubling and even tripling them up, he continued to only throw one solid punch at a time. This kept these rounds close but the bottom line was that he landed more punches than his counter-part resulting, on my scorecard, getting the 10-9 scores in his favor.
De La Hoya was not able to bully Mayweather, as he did earlier in the fight. Therefore, he was not able to score with body shots and set up multi-punch combinations that would have helped him possibly get the nod in these rounds. He was out-worked just enough to, in my opinion, lose these rounds.
The twelfth and final round saw Mayweather start quickly, but a strong finish by De La Hoya won the round on my card. Neither fighter was knocked down, cut or hurt during the bout.
One of the three judges at ringside scored the fight 115-113 in favor of Oscar De La Hoya while the other two scored it 116-112 and 115-113 in favor of Floyd Mayweather Jr. giving him the Split-Decision win and the WBC Super Welterweight Title.
I scored the fight 114-114, a DRAW.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. stays undefeated at 38-0 (24 KOs) while Oscar De La Hoya drops to 38-5 (30 KOs).
After the fight, Mayweather said he was now retired and talked BS about how he beat up Oscar and loads of other nonsense. He said the fight was “Easy” for him. Lets make one thing clear. He did not beat up Oscar De La Hoya by any means and make no mistake; this fight was NOT easy for him. I don’t care what he says. He may have, in the eyes of the judges at ringside, won the fight, but by no means did he do it easily.
As silly as Mayweather sounded with his post-fight interview, De La Hoya sounded just a little too complacent with the decision that was just handed down. I know he has always conducted himself as a professional, in and out of the ring and it’s not his game to talk crap, but he should have showed a little “attitude” with this decision. After all, one judge did score the fight in his favor AND even Floyd Mayweather Sr., while getting his TV time, was asked (twice) by Larry Merchant who won the fight and he basically said that Oscar did.
This fight reminded me of another great one and for it’s time had a similar build up, public interest and end result. It too was very competitive. It was Marvin Hagler vs. Sugar Ray Leonard in April of 1987. This fight also rendered the wrong decision, resulting in losing one of the best Champions of all time from the mainstream of boxing. Marvin Hagler was so pissed at the decision, which went to Sugar Ray Leonard that he NEVER boxed again. As a matter of fact to this day, the only boxing-related event he consistently attends is the IBHOF induction ceremonies every year in Canastota, NY. That’s about it.
I watched the Hagler-Leonard fight over and over and over. I scored it every time. Sometimes I would score a round differently but EVERYTIME the score added up to a DRAW. By ending in a draw, it would have been so much better for the sport of boxing. Think about it: Sugar Ray would have accomplished what he set out to do, compete and earn a very respectable decision. Hagler would have retained his belt. The best part is we almost as sure as peanut butter goes with jelly, would have seen a re-match. Thus the fans (and promoters) would have benefited. In stead, Sugar Ray Leonard got the title, was never the same fighter and Marvelous Marvin Hagler went off to be a movie star in Italy.
The Floyd Mayweather Jr.- Oscar De La Hoya fight was a great fight. It DID live up to its billing. The public bought it. Everything about the fight was a success, except for one thing: They got the decision WRONG. This fight was a draw.
I had to see the fight again. I had to score it again to see if I missed something while watching the fight live. I was up until three in the morning watching the fight two more times. I scored it again each time and just like in the Leonard-Hagler bout twenty years ago, my result was the same……a DRAW.
If this fight ended in a draw, there would be no doubt we would see a rematch. There would be no doubt that it would be just as big, if not bigger, an event than last night’s mega fight. Most importantly, I would bet my last dollar that it would be just as competitive.
Instead, we have Mayweather officially announcing his retirement because he feels he has nothing else to prove and De La Hoya, whether he was playing nice and “acting” complacent with the decision, not even demanding a rematch during his immediate post-fight interview. He said he would, but that was about it. Floyd Sr. did his best to keep controversy around himself by announcing to the world that he felt Oscar won the fight.
Maybe that will spark Floyd Jr. into talking rematch right now. Why not? The fight is WORTHY of a rematch. I doubt the public will complain. For the first time in a long time, we got to see a QUALITY match up. We got to see a fight actually live up to the hype that surrounded it. Why shouldn’t we get to see another?
The sad thing is that quality bouts have become extremely rare so when we actually get one, we want more right away. Maybe what was said about this bout will come true. Prior to the fight, many boxing experts wrote and commented that this fight will save boxing. If it can set the precedence of getting more promoters to match the best fighters in their divisions to fight each other, then maybe it HAS saved the sport. I doubt many will argue that the Floyd Mayweather Jr.–Oscar De La Hoya bout was NOT a good fight. Why can’t these types of fights be the norm and not the exception?
I am not sure how everyone, the experts, the true boxing fans as well as the casual boxing fan, will feel about the decision of this fight. I know they will all agree that it was a good fight but over the next few weeks it will be extremely interesting to see how the reaction to the decision goes. I for one feel it was a great fight. It was a very competitive fight. It was action-packed. It was everything you look for in a high profile boxing match. But, the decision was wrong. When ever you have a fight that you can watch over and over and a round can go to either fighter, no matter how you slice it, the fight should be ruled a draw.
All parties involved, the boxers, the network, the promoters, and the fans will now have to wait and see where we go from here. Will we see a re-match? Only time will tell. If the fight were ruled correctly, a draw, then it would be a matter of WHEN the re-match will take place. Not IF.
