De La Hoya blog: The best I fought
Posted Aug. 19, 2009 at 04:45pm
By Oscar De La HoyaBuzz up!
Oscar De La Hoya fought many of the best fighters in the world during his 16-year professional career. In his blog this week, he lists the best he faced in 10 important categories.
Best fighter: Julio Cesar Chavez -- He had it all. He could box, he could punch, he had an iron chin. And he had guts. He had the whole package. He wasn’t 25 when he fought me but he was still an elite fighter.
Best boxer: Pernell Whitaker -- He was very elusive, very hard to hit. He was very slippery.
Best puncher: Arturo Gatti. -- This kid, may he rest in peace, didn’t catch me flush on the chin but his punches were so heavy, heavier than Ike Quartey’s. I don’t know what he had in his hands.
Quickest hands: Manny Pacquiao -- His punches don’t come from your basic boxing style; they come from all sorts of weird angles. That’s what makes him difficult.
Quickest feet: Pernell Whitaker -- He was very elusive. He could spin you around and not exert much energy doing it. He did it with ease. It was so natural to him. Footwork starts everything.
Best defense: Pernell Whitaker -- Again, he was slippery, elusive. It was hard to crack that defense.
Best chin: Julio Cesar Chavez -- I hit him with some shots. In our second fight, I said to myself, “My gosh. How can he not go down?”
Best jab: Ike Quartey -- He had an incredible jab. The special thing about it was that he threw it from his chin or sometimes he would leave it loose in the air. You wouldn’t notice him throwing it. His jab was very powerful, one of his best weapons. And when it landed, it really hurt. It didn’t sting; it hurt. Like a hammer coming down on you.
Strongest: Fernando Vargas -- He just felt strong. It was so hard to handle him. I felt his weight. His punches were heavy and strong. He was solid. We all know what happened there, though: He had a little help.
Smartest: Bernard Hopkins -- He is the type of fighter who gets in your head. For our press tour, he was always polite, very nice. No trash talk, no nothing. After the fight, I realized: He did that because he didn’t want me to fight angry, to try to take his head off. At the time I fought him, he didn’t like pressure from his opponent because he didn’t like fighting the whole three minutes. He is one smart cookie
floyd is an all round fighter,with no major weaknesses
i dont see it as a diss towards him that hes not on the list,as alot of the fighters mentioned were from DLH's earlier career and the floyd match was more money-orientated than donald trump ffs
LOL at the floyd fans getting butt hurt.. truth is mayweather didn't do anything to oscar when they fought not even a scratch on oscar's face.. heck even pillow fisted steve forbes busted oscar's face something floyd didn't even come close of doing.. oh right floyd had 10oz gloves booo hooo..
haha, odlh didnt mention floyd and now the floyd fans are doing floyds best impersonations.
Maybe since ODLH had a SD and never got hurt against Floyd he wasnt too impressed. But I guess it was the 10oz gloves right?
Yeah he dominated him by winning 7 rounds lol.
There wasn't best german you fought category.
I dont think you have seen fight. Felix dominate Oscar because Oscar was fat and not in shape only round shape
Floyd is strangely not mentioned because:
a) He secretly dislikes Floyd or
b) Even after choosing the weight class, ring size, and glove sizes, he was still beaten and got his belt taken in the highest grossing fight in boxing history.
That's just my guess. But it would be interesting to hear his reason why he chose not to include Floyd.
I'm sure he'll be asked why.
I remember after Oscar fought Mayorga ,they asked him who was the hardest puncher he faced and he said Arturo Gatti.After the Oscar/Gatti fight Arturo said he couldn't land anything CLEAN or on Oscars chin and was surprised at how hard Delahoya he was to hit flush.Even Oscar admitted he never got hit flush on the chin by Gatti but said he had the heaviest hands he ever felt.When they took REYES Munez out on the stretcher in the first round and he never fought again I knew Gatti had power.The fact that Ward suffered triple vision for over 6 months after their last fight and needed brain surgery to fix it ,for me confirmed Gatti's power,or watching Dorin who had never been down or even hurt,crumble like he was shot after Gatti drilled him with a left hook to the liver. Go watchyoutube when Gatti was training for Gomez with Ward holding the pads,man was he CRACKIN with the uppercuts and right hands,too bad he didn't throw more than THREE PUNCHES THAT WHOLE FIGHT against Gomez,but Arturo could sure Crack.I think the best way too sum up Aruro Gatti is he had everything to be an elite fighter-exceptional power in both hands,great chin,very fluid-but he never put it ALL together an became an ELITE!!RIP-THUNDER
De La Hoya blog: The best I fought
Posted Aug. 19, 2009 at 04:45pm
By Oscar De La HoyaBuzz up!
Oscar De La Hoya fought many of the best fighters in the world during his 16-year professional career. In his blog this week, he lists the best he faced in 10 important categories.
Best fighter: Julio Cesar Chavez -- He had it all. He could box, he could punch, he had an iron chin. And he had guts. He had the whole package. He wasn’t 25 when he fought me but he was still an elite fighter.
Best boxer: Pernell Whitaker -- He was very elusive, very hard to hit. He was very slippery.
Best puncher: Arturo Gatti. -- This kid, may he rest in peace, didn’t catch me flush on the chin but his punches were so heavy, heavier than Ike Quartey’s. I don’t know what he had in his hands.
Quickest hands: Manny Pacquiao -- His punches don’t come from your basic boxing style; they come from all sorts of weird angles. That’s what makes him difficult.
Quickest feet: Pernell Whitaker -- He was very elusive. He could spin you around and not exert much energy doing it. He did it with ease. It was so natural to him. Footwork starts everything.
Best defense: Pernell Whitaker -- Again, he was slippery, elusive. It was hard to crack that defense.
Best chin: Julio Cesar Chavez -- I hit him with some shots. In our second fight, I said to myself, “My gosh. How can he not go down?”
Best jab: Ike Quartey -- He had an incredible jab. The special thing about it was that he threw it from his chin or sometimes he would leave it loose in the air. You wouldn’t notice him throwing it. His jab was very powerful, one of his best weapons. And when it landed, it really hurt. It didn’t sting; it hurt. Like a hammer coming down on you.
Strongest: Fernando Vargas -- He just felt strong. It was so hard to handle him. I felt his weight. His punches were heavy and strong. He was solid. We all know what happened there, though: He had a little help.
Smartest: Bernard Hopkins -- He is the type of fighter who gets in your head. For our press tour, he was always polite, very nice. No trash talk, no nothing. After the fight, I realized: He did that because he didn’t want me to fight angry, to try to take his head off. At the time I fought him, he didn’t like pressure from his opponent because he didn’t like fighting the whole three minutes. He is one smart cookie
Floyd is the best in all those categories, except strongest.
De La Hoya blog: The best I fought
Posted Aug. 19, 2009 at 04:45pm
By Oscar De La HoyaBuzz up!
Oscar De La Hoya fought many of the best fighters in the world during his 16-year professional career. In his blog this week, he lists the best he faced in 10 important categories.
Best fighter: Julio Cesar Chavez -- He had it all. He could box, he could punch, he had an iron chin. And he had guts. He had the whole package. He wasn’t 25 when he fought me but he was still an elite fighter.
Best boxer: Pernell Whitaker -- He was very elusive, very hard to hit. He was very slippery.
Best puncher: Arturo Gatti. -- This kid, may he rest in peace, didn’t catch me flush on the chin but his punches were so heavy, heavier than Ike Quartey’s. I don’t know what he had in his hands.
Quickest hands: Manny Pacquiao -- His punches don’t come from your basic boxing style; they come from all sorts of weird angles. That’s what makes him difficult.
Quickest feet: Pernell Whitaker -- He was very elusive. He could spin you around and not exert much energy doing it. He did it with ease. It was so natural to him. Footwork starts everything.
Best defense: Pernell Whitaker -- Again, he was slippery, elusive. It was hard to crack that defense.
Best chin: Julio Cesar Chavez -- I hit him with some shots. In our second fight, I said to myself, “My gosh. How can he not go down?”
Best jab: Ike Quartey -- He had an incredible jab. The special thing about it was that he threw it from his chin or sometimes he would leave it loose in the air. You wouldn’t notice him throwing it. His jab was very powerful, one of his best weapons. And when it landed, it really hurt. It didn’t sting; it hurt. Like a hammer coming down on you.
Strongest: Fernando Vargas -- He just felt strong. It was so hard to handle him. I felt his weight. His punches were heavy and strong. He was solid. We all know what happened there, though: He had a little help.
Smartest: Bernard Hopkins -- He is the type of fighter who gets in your head. For our press tour, he was always polite, very nice. No trash talk, no nothing. After the fight, I realized: He did that because he didn’t want me to fight angry, to try to take his head off. At the time I fought him, he didn’t like pressure from his opponent because he didn’t like fighting the whole three minutes. He is one smart cookie
Well, in terms of Floyd not being mentioned nobody could expect him to be listed as the Strongest, Best Puncher or even- due to the nature of their fight- Best Chin. Also, they made a distinction between Best Fighter and Best Boxer- so we all know Floyd could only be up for best boxer out of those two.
So, Floyd lost the following:
Best Boxer to Pernell Whitaker
Quickest Hands to Manny Pacquiao
Quicket Feet to Pernell Whitaker
Best Defense to Pernell Whitaker
Smartest to Bernard Hopkins
I suppose even Best Jab to Ike Quartey.
I'm a Floyd fan but you can't really argue that it's not surprising that Oscar said Pernell Whitaker was a better boxer with quicker feet and a better defense than Floyd. That's fair, right?
Then we have Floyd losing the speed contest to Manny, but, I mean- Floyd is fast but not as fast as when he was at the lower weights plus, in truth, Manny was able to display his handspeed because he's probably more of a puncher than Floyd and his gameplan was to come at Oscar.
So Floyd lost Smartest to Bernard. Shit, Hopkins is HoF and a good tactician, so that's not unheard of either.
Quartey has a better jab? Sure, Floyd isn't know for his jab, anyway.
Fair enough on all points from me, a Floyd fan- am I a 'Flomo'?
I have to disagree with him saying that JCC was still an elite fighter when he fought him. he was still better than most out there but he was a shell of his former self.
A prime JCC was a beast and I still contend would have beaten DLH.