When Oscar De La Hoya burst upon the scene with a first round knockout over Lamar Williams in November 1992, it was evident almost immediately that boxing was witnessing the birth of a superstar.
Over half a century earlier, in 1941, one Walker Smith made a comparable debut at the New York Daily News sponsored Golden Gloves tournament. One only had to watch the man who would come to be known as Sugar Ray Robinson in action, for the very first time, to understand you were watching the unveiling of a great fighter. In his first two years in the professional ranks the young De La Hoya drew comparisons to a young Robinson and “Sugar” Ray Leonard. As the Mike Tyson era inflicted damage to boxing, De La Hoya brought a dash of Hollywood, a developing stardom the capturing the attention of millions of Americans. A De La Hoya TV matinee brought an instant spike in viewership and a spike in ratings. He possessed every tool to become a star. Striking good looks, ring generalship that betrayed his years, speed of hand and foot and a classic left hook.
With impressive stoppages in 11 of his first 12 bouts, De La Hoya made a pronounced mark in the junior lightweight and lightweight class. He captured his first championship in his 11th professional bout with a 10th-round knockout of tough Jimmi Bredahl in California.
Four months later he TKO’s Jorge Paez for the WBO lightweight crown, earning his second title in 1994. In less than two years in the professional ranks, the undefeated De La Hoya was slowly becoming the man who one day be the No. 1 drawing card in boxing.
De La Hoya’s stellar amateur pedigree, combined with his explosive entry into the professional ranks, drew him comparisons with a young Robinson. A sense of inevitable greatness began to envelop De La Hoya. In many ways he seemed to parallel Leonard, a striking superstar with boundless ability and unlimited potential. By the mid-1990’s it seemed only a matter of how many championships he would capture.
Tall and powerful with myriad of skills it was inexorable that he would grow into and through the welterweight ranks. When he destroyed Rafael Ruelas with a brutal second round TKO in May 1995, he was on the threshold of eclipsing a young Leonard as a powerful, skilled and dominant and long term champion.
Something happened to De La Hoya on his road to ring immortality. It wasn’t a question of not realizing his vast potential or being the victim of a crushing defeat that left his career in tatters. Nothing of the sort happened. De La Hoya never acquired the invincibility of a young Cassius Clay that swept through the heavyweight ranks in the early 1960’s. Or Leonard, who grew into an utterly dominant champion in the three short years after he won the Olympic gold medal at Montreal in 1976.
Marvin Hagler suffered two defeats in the middle 1970s and a draw decision with then-titleholder Vito Antuofermo that would have devastated most fighters. Yet Hagler stormed his way to the middleweight crown and scorched the middleweight division for nearly seven years, a great champion whose “Destruct and Destroy” creed was a perfect manifestation of his utter superiority.
The defining bout of De La Hoya’s career was a victory, albeit a disputed one. His 12-round unanimous decision over Pernell Whitaker on April 12, 1997, a contest in which many expected De La Hoya to showcase his enormous talent and emerge as an all-time great champion with a dominating performance. A good parallel to this bout was a scene from Rocky II when Apollo Creed asked his manager, “Did I win the fight.” The reply, “You got the decision.”
If Whitaker would have fought 12 full rounds instead of giving away a handful of them, he would have retained his WBC welterweight crown. De La Hoya won, yet it was the beginning of the end of any claim to enduring greatness for De La Hoya.
Then came the Felix Trinidad disaster. The Golden Boy fought better than he had against Whitaker. He out-punched and out-maneuvered Trinidad and looked for all the world like a decisive winner after eight rounds. Where Leonard walked through Hearns to stave off defeat, and Hagler, badly cut and near defeat, drove Hearns to the canvas, De La Hoya took the rest of the night off and Trinidad caught him at the wire and dealt him a humiliating defeat.
Humiliating because the defeat was inexcusable. Great fighters fight, all the way. Every minute of every round. De La Hoya should have knocked out Trinidad inside of 10 rounds. Whether is was too much adulation, or the expectation of any Whitaker-like gift, the Californian decided eight rounds of fighting was enough. De La Hoya, and his reputation, have never recovered.
Since that September night in 1999, De La Hoya has remained a significant, yet diminished force in boxing. He has acquired several alphabet titles, prevailing over respectable, not championship-caliber opposition. His first points loss to Shane Mosley was beyond dispute. In their return bout, over three years later, De La Hoya fought hard and pressed Mosley throughout the bout. De La Hoya seemed to have done enough to prevail. However, Mosley again got the verdict.
De La Hoya has paid a steep price for his gift over Whitaker a decade ago. That triumph was a crown of thorns on De La Hoya’s brow and the undisputed beginning of his decline as a world-class fighter.
His 12-round decision over Felix Sturm to capture the WBO Middleweight title earned De La Hoya no claim to greatness, and his ninth-round, one-body-punch knockout loss to Bernard Hopkins, came as a surprise to no one.
Now he has chosen to try, one last time, to scale the mountain of ring greatness that seemed so assuredly his a decade ago. No one is giving De La Hoya more than an outside chance at best against the multi-talented and seemingly invincible Floyd Mayweather Jr. A champion in his absolute prime, Mayweather has only one handicap as the May contest draws closer. He will fight at 154 pounds, which should be a decided advantage for the physically larger De La Hoya.
Still, it is beyond credulity to make much of an argument for De La Hoya. Every measurable advantage belongs to Mayweather. He should bury De La Hoya in an avalanche of punches delivered from every conceivable angle. De La Hoya has to be afforded only a punchers’ chance, yet how much real punching has he done in the past decade?
Judging by his record in “Big Fights” over the past few years, he will have to achieve an extraordinary effort to upset Mayweather. He will have to cast aside any vestige of caution and walk through Mayweather. He will have to absorb Marciano-type punishment to get inside, to force Mayweather against the ropes and rifle his midsection, punish him where it hurts the most. If De La Hoya can somehow fight this kind of fight, and go deep down inside of himself to fine it, than he has to be given a chance.
Cut the ring off. Stay on top of Mayweather, show him no respect. Manhandle him inside and in the clinches. Take punishment without taking one backward step. Find a way, somehow, to throw that powerful left hook he should have thrown at Whitaker a decade ago, that left hook that would have earned him the greatness so pre ordained and never realized.
Regardless of the outcome, De La Hoya can end his career in the adulation it began if he brings this type of fight to Mayweather. Mayweather is not a popular champion and it won’t take more than a De La Hoya combination to buckle his knees to bring down the house in a torrent of cheers for the Californian.
For boxing’s sake, I hope he finds that fight on May 5 and the fight lives up to extraordinary hype bestowed upon it.
