‘Controversy’ De La Hoya v Trinidad? – Countdown to May 5

by Suzanne Nield

Far be it from me to suggest that a fellow writer is a card-carrying lunatic who wouldn’t know talent if it sat on him and wriggled. But I came across an internet article recently which espoused the view, in all seriousness, that Bernard Hopkins is more talented than Oscar De La Hoya. I had to lie down to laugh properly at that one.

Bernard Hopkins is the luckiest mediocrity alive. A light-heavy debutant, he boiled down to hammer his way through little guys and into the hearts of the US media giants. They wanted a darling and they picked him – like a rich old lady picks the gardener. He was in the right place at the right time.

The only names of note on his record: Trinidad, a career welterweight, who failed to adapt on his feet and was badly let down by his corner in that fight. And Oscar, who came up from super-featherweight, but still managed for eight rounds to outbox a man who entered the ring at an unofficial 169 lbs. One good meal and Hopkins could’ve weighed in with Maccarinelli.

B-Hop welshed on a deal to fight Calzaghe for £3 million, opting instead to meet Carl Daniels for £1 million. What does that tell you about his willingness to meet a class act his own size?

But oh, B-Hop is lucky. For with that heavy paw to the short rib he handed Oscar his only uncontroversial loss.

There were the Mosley fights, of course. The first split decision we could almost live with. Shane boxed beautifully in that fight – just not beautifully enough to win it on my card. But it was the rematch which left the truly sour taste, all three judges delivering the same score of 115-113 for Mosley in a bout which saw De La Hoya dominate the ring to outland him by 3 to 1.

The judges, who were favouring Oscar unanimously in the earlier rounds, suddenly changed their minds for the later ones. The justification for this just isn’t there in the fight footage, and it led Oscar’s promoter Bob Arum to accuse the Nevada State Athletic Commission of putting up bent officials.

At around the same time the FBI, pursuing their own tip-top secret agenda, raided Bob Arum’s offices for evidence of tampering with medical records and found nothing. It was unclear why Arum would want a fight thrown against his own boxer (this was before their bitter falling-out). To the ludicrous suggestion that the fighters themselves may have been involved for a price, Mosley’s promoter Gary Shaw echoed the thoughts of many when he retorted that you’d have to promise those guys their own private continents to give them something they didn’t already have.

Anyway. It’s all water under the bridge now. Oscar and Shane were childhood buddies and now they’re business partners in Golden Boy Promotions. All’s well that ends well.

But one defeat in particular must still rankle for Oscar. He can probably live with not being a middleweight (or a light-heavyweight), and no doubt he and Shane have drawn a veil over that rematch so they can enjoy family barbecues together.

It’s the Trinidad fight that must come back to haunt the Golden Boy in the wee small hours, if he ever has trouble sleeping. That was the first loss. Everyone knows that it’s better for a fighter to lose early in his career, deserved or not, so he can get over it. The taller the record, the harder the fall. Oscar was coming in at 31-0 (25 inside). He had beaten his idol Julio Cesar Chavez twice, decisioned Hector Camacho, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Pernell Whitaker and Ike Quartey, and was coming off an 11th round knockout of the solid Oba Carr (who had just defeated Frankie Randall).

Sometimes comments made on press row after a fight have a way of lingering in the public consciousness, so that they come to be accepted as part of the body of boxing history, repeated and handed down as fact. One such is the ‘truism’ that Oscar fought eight rounds against Trinidad and then went on his bike for the last four. If this had actually happened, then he should have won the fight anyway, having won those eight rounds.

But it didn’t happen. Watch the tape.

De La Hoya fought a brilliant tactical battle from the opening bell, his punches cleaner and more varied, outworking and outlanding the Puerto Rican star in every round. Tito was walking into punches and his shots were usually caught on the arms or gloves. Oscar forced him into the inelegant role of following a puncher around just to get picked off. Going into the seventh, the HBO team said they wouldn’t be surprised if Oscar had a 5-1 lead on every judge’s scorecard. George Foreman said, ominously as it happened, that he had seen such crazy scoring in the past, they could have it 5-1 for Trinidad. Everyone laughed.

The seventh round was a great performance from Oscar. Trinidad couldn’t catch him, couldn’t land. Oscar used his feet to deliver a lesson on how to hit and take nothing back, darting in and out to land his combinations, making Felix miss. But one judge, Bob Logist, somehow scored this one for Trinidad.

Going into the tenth, Larry Merchant said, ‘I think on everybody’s scorecard here, Felix Trinidad is going to have to do something dramatic soon to turn this around.’ De La Hoya again boxed beautifully on his toes, keeping Tito on the end of his jab and slipping in to barrage to the body with some wicked combinations. Yet, astonishingly, the judges scored this one unanimously for Trinidad.

How could this be? Felix landed nothing of note and was being systematically demolished. The least cynical explanation is that the judges were being treated to a display of boxing skill they weren’t equipped to understand. They could see only that one fighter, Trinidad, was walking forwards. The fact that he was failing to connect while being fed leather, had not registered with them. Oscar’s performance was pearls before swine.

For those who had hoped to see a toe-to-toe battle, the eleventh round must have been frustrating. Oscar was moving fast again, and while he continued to jab he threw only two sets of combinations. They landed and hurt, however, particularly that big left to the head when Trinidad tried to rope him. This was the round that made the blood ‘n’ guts enthusiasts start talking about Oscar running. (They just backdated it a little after the fight.)

The last round saw Trinidad catching Oscar with a couple of good left hooks to the body. But De La Hoya was still moving, popping him with the jab. Larry Merchant conceded that Oscar may not have endeared himself to the fans by failing to provide a slugfest. ‘But he probably has endeared himself to the officials, and he’s endeared himself to his trainers Robert Alcazar and Bill Clancy, who begged him for weeks to come here and box.’
Judge Glen Hamada’s score was announced first, a draw. Oscar looked disbelieving, but worse was to come. Jerry Roth 113-115, Bob Logist 114-115, both for lucky Felix.

‘I thought I put up the boxing lesson of my life,’ said Oscar. ‘I know I won. People were expecting me to duke it out, but I was making him miss and making him pay. I’m hurt. I’m hurt inside, emotionally.’

‘Because your plan didn’t work?’ asked Merchant.

‘My plan did work! I thought I had the fight won easy, by outboxing him and outclassing him. People know I’m a warrior, I can stand in there with anyone. But I wanted to demonstrate a boxing show. I guess people didn’t appreciate that tonight.’

‘The people in your corner,’ said Merchant, ‘Were obviously telling you it was working, and you believed them?’

‘Of course. It was working. I felt in my heart that it was working.’

What could Oscar do, but go back to flooring people? Derrell Coley was first, then Gatti and Yori Boy Campas soon after.

But his most satisfying win has to be his eleventh-round stoppage of ‘El Feroz’, Fernando Vargas, who came into the ring looking like a bull on steroids. No coincidence, as it happened.

Career-Best Performance
De La Hoya v Vargas – next