In this decade De La Hoya has done two notable things: 1.) He has become the most popular boxer of his era, transcending the sport as we know it; a boxer and a business mogul. 2.) He has lost nearly every major fight in which he has faced a top opponent.
Del La Hoya is not the fighter he used to be or maybe ever was. It is possible that his immense popularity coupled with a few signature wins have led both the boxing media and general public to rank him higher than his abilities would suggest. Since 1999, he has suffered defeat at the hands of FLoyd Mayweather, Felix Trinidad, twice by Shane Mosley, was KO'd by Hopkins, and we can consider his fight with the previously undefeated Felix Sturm a loss as well, because it seemed as though the only reason The Golden Boy was given that fight was due to the impeding super-fight with Hopkins, which was scheduled for the coming months (maybe it was a "tune up fight")
Last but not least, I found it very interesting to watch The Golden Boy's selection process for his opponent in his most recent fight. He seemed to be searching for small, quick, intelligent boxers to simulate a fight between his upcoming adversary (Mayweather). After tossing around many names, he narrowed it down to three, one of them being the junior welterweight IBF champion, Paulie Malignaggi. Now that got me excited. Malignaggi would have with out a doubt been a perfect simulation of Mayweather's style. Such a close simulation in fact, it would have been too close to the real thing and The Golden Boy would have found a big L next to his name after the final bell.
Of course Oscar's intelligence and business savvy prevailed once again, and now instead of watching a truly great fight (Malignaggi vs. De La Hoya) with a chance of a De La Hoya loss that would create the possiblity for Mayweather to have take on a different fighter (say Miguel Cotto), we are now subjected to two fights that (I think it is safe to say) you and I could have done without.
Excerpt from my piece on The Final Bell (http://finalbell.blogspot.com)
KillerJoe Boborelli
F-G.W.
I never once saw Cotto in trouble or close to being KO'd like he was against Judah or Torres. This is one of the few fights were Cotto has had to show his versatility. I had him up by one point.
In this decade De La Hoya has done two notable things: 1.) He has become the most popular boxer of his era, transcending the sport as we know it; a boxer and a business mogul. 2.) He has lost nearly every major fight in which he has faced a top opponent.
Del La Hoya is not the fighter he used to be or maybe ever was. It is possible that his immense popularity coupled with a few signature wins have led both the boxing media and general public to rank him higher than his abilities would suggest. Since 1999, he has suffered defeat at the hands of FLoyd Mayweather, Felix Trinidad, twice by Shane Mosley, was KO'd by Hopkins, and we can consider his fight with the previously undefeated Felix Sturm a loss as well, because it seemed as though the only reason The Golden Boy was given that fight was due to the impeding super-fight with Hopkins, which was scheduled for the coming months (maybe it was a "tune up fight")
Last but not least, I found it very interesting to watch The Golden Boy's selection process for his opponent in his most recent fight. He seemed to be searching for small, quick, intelligent boxers to simulate a fight between his upcoming adversary (Mayweather). After tossing around many names, he narrowed it down to three, one of them being the junior welterweight IBF champion, Paulie Malignaggi. Now that got me excited. Malignaggi would have with out a doubt been a perfect simulation of Mayweather's style. Such a close simulation in fact, it would have been too close to the real thing and The Golden Boy would have found a big L next to his name after the final bell.
Of course Oscar's intelligence and business savvy prevailed once again, and now instead of watching a truly great fight (Malignaggi vs. De La Hoya) with a chance of a De La Hoya loss that would create the possiblity for Mayweather to have take on a different fighter (say Miguel Cotto), we are now subjected to two fights that (I think it is safe to say) you and I could have done without.
Excerpt from my piece on The Final Bell (http://finalbell.blogspot.com)
KillerJoe Boborelli
F-G.W.
I agree with all of that, except IMO Forbes was a better prep for the Mayweather rematch than Paulie would have been. Forbes has been trained by Mayweathers for almost his entire career. I also don't see Paulie beating Oscar at 150 lbs.
Hey I was front row at that fight and it was a draw. The fans who all saw the fight thought it was a draw. And the ref did some hocus pocus to save Cotto from a ko.
I still think Cotto will beat oSCAR
I still fail to see how Cotto was anywhere close to being KO'ed, but whatever.
Mosley pointed at the wet spot too btw. So you can blame him for the hocus pocus.
Bullshit, Cotto clearly was landing the cleaner shotss and dodging Mosleys punches, Mosley landed about a dozen hard shots and thats about it. Mosley was missing most of his shots. And Oscar is king of robbery but he still outboxed Trinidad but even tht fight was close.
Hey I was front row at that fight and it was a draw. The fans who all saw the fight thought it was a draw. And the ref did some hocus pocus to save Cotto from a ko.
I still think Cotto will beat oSCAR
did you see the second fight? Oscar was robbed in that fight.... Cotto fought a WAY past his prime Shane and he still gave him a fight, the fight was close and many people actually think Shane won (i think he lost).
the majority of these armchair boxing historian hate posts come from people who didnt actually see the fights, just the boxrecs.
What'd think Cotto would've done to a past prime Chavez now thats something to think about...
We would not know about Oscar if he fought Cotto at that time.
You know they were really trying to bring Hector Camacho into the limelight as the next Oscar but he had other plans and he really sucked.
dela hoya wasnt all that gd anyway he was jus a good technician very technical but not all that.
You missed all of these points about Oscar:
Very good chin.
Very fast hands
Good power
He had pretty good foot movement
So, you kinda forgot everythng about him :lol1: Y'all musta forgot
He would beat Cotto in his prime.
His legacy will be that he never won his biggest fights. I give him credit over the Trinidad loss since he won in my eyes. He was leading against Hop in my opinion and then came the phantom liver shot. He WAS a great fighter, but if there is a time he has been hugely overrated, it is now at this point of his career.
I always thought Oscar was a little overrated. I really liked the Chavez fight but Chavez in his prime may have beaten him. He is great for the sport and I can respect that. But the losses he had are very good answers to the question of him being overrated
His legacy will be that he never won his biggest fights. I give him credit over the Trinidad loss since he won in my eyes. He was leading against Hop in my opinion and then came the phantom liver shot. He WAS a great fighter, but if there is a time he has been hugely overrated, it is now at this point of his career.