De La is (was) great but he is not Sugar Ray Leonard

[potatoes]

The standards of greatness are Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, and I'll throw Ali out there also. A great fighter gets up when he can't. I don't recall who said that, but it was said. I felt those guys would've gotten up if they were in that situation. I can't prove that DLH laid down because he didn't want to get up, but that's my assessment.

Jack Dempsey said it.

You have to understand that men aren't machines and they will often perform much better at times than others. De La Hoya went into the fight against Hopkins believing that he would get knocked out, consequently he performed unusually poorly. Spinks had the same problem with Tyson, and Norton with Foreman. When you walk into the ring with the wrong attitude you lose control and start to imagine things are worse than they really are. If De La Hoya had been in a controlled frame of mind he would have gotten up again.