A COUPLE of days ago, Oscar de la Hoya preached that he had the formula to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. and he was willing to share it with Victor Ortiz (29-3, 22KOs).
We all know that Floyd Jr. won via split decision over Oscar back in 2007. So is Oscar telling us a barefaced lie to probably burnish his legacy? Or is there some merit to the assertion? Methinks it might be worth looking into.
CONSIDER. For the record, I thought Oscar did enough to defeat Floyd Jr. that night. It was close, but he edged it on my scorecard on account of his aggression.
While Oscar was gamely trying to bring it to Floyd, the latter, on the other hand, made sure no fighting broke out.
Oscar was bull-strong in the first few rounds, and was backing up Floyd. Early in the fight, his jab was still clicking and with Oscar firing on all cylinders, Floyd lost the early stanzas by ducking and tying up Oscar.
In the middle rounds, Floyd started to potshot Oscar as he was able to successfully create some space and land some accurate shots. In the middle of the ring he scored, but even so, when the action shifted to the ropes, Floyd was always reduced to defensive mode.
Both men had their moments in the seventh and eighth rounds, with Floyd controlling the center and Oscar doing the mauling along the ropes.
Characteristically, Oscar?s activity turned lean in the championship rounds, but still the rounds were arguably close. De la Hoya won the 12th round as he finished strong.
When it was over, the scorecards read, 116-112, 115-113, for Floyd and 115-113 for Oscar.
It would be pointless to quibble about the merits of the scoring now as they will forever read that Oscar lost. But the numbers don?t lie?it was a close and tactical fight that could have arguably gone either way.
ENTER VICTOR ORTIZ. That aside, assuming arguendo that Oscar can impart some precious nuggets of fistic wisdom to Ortiz, there?s the not-so- small matter of the latter successfully applying the same.
Style-wise, he fights differently from de la Hoya. He?s a lefty who comes forward, relishing exchanges. He?s chinny too, unlike the Golden Boy who takes a very good shot.
Perhaps the page he can take out of Oscar?s book is the aggression and the pressure. Because Ortiz?s conditioning is superior to Oscar?s who is known to check out in the championship rounds, he should be able to perform better where Oscar failed.
Just recently, Ortiz finished a triathlon wherein he did a 500-yard swim, 30K bike and 5K run. In the men?s 20-24 age group, Ortiz finished at ninth place.
Of course, we all know that when the bell rings, fight strategies have been know to disappear faster than a fart in a windstorm.
TITO. My heart goes out to the ?Huntington Beach Bad Boy?,Tito Ortiz. This time, he didn?t make any excuses, showed up, offered us his best but failed.
Against a younger, faster and better Rashad Evans, Ortiz looked slow, was repeatedly outmaneuvered and beaten to the punch.
His vaunted ground-and-pound was rendered nugatory by the slippery and well-improved Evans.
There was a point in the second round when Tito was briefly able to lock in a guillotine choke that evoked memories of his Bader victory, but it was not to be.
Evans scrambled out of it, and proceeded to dominate Tito along the cage. The coup de grace was a wicked knee to the chest that had Tito slumping down, defenseless.
HE SAID IT. ?You take Chad Dawson?s resume and my resume if you?re applying for a job, OK? Harvard,? he said, pointing to himself. ?Community college,? he continued, gesturing toward Dawson.- Bernard Hopkins on fighting Chad Dawson (www. philly.com)
LAST ROUNDS. Are on my nephews, Anthony Sabas Quijano and James Raphael Quijano, who are celebrating their birthdays this week. Cheers!
