De La Hoya - Mayweather
Was it the biggest fight of all time? No. Was it the best fight of all time? No. Was it even the best fight in the past ten years? Not exactly.
Those of you who saw the fight know what I mean. The fight, which lasted all 12 rounds, was worth our pay-per-view money, but didn't satisfy curiousity at all. There was no definitive victor, no knock out, hell, no knockdowns. Pretty Boy Floyd did NOT do what he said and Oscar did. Some points should have been awarded for that.
I don't know much about boxing scoring, especially since I've seen fights scored many different ways. I've watched fights where the agressor wins, regardless of punch percentages and statistics. I've seen fights where the savvier defender gets the nod from the judges. In my opinion, when it goes to the cards (as many fights do) boxing loses some of its allure.
A decision steals something from the glory of boxing. For De La Hoya - Mayweather, a rematch should already be in the works. I HOPE a rematch is already in the works. The public wants it and both of them should want it. Not even for the millions they will bank, but for the pride and actual bragging rights.
Floyd may have come out on top, but his verbal credibility is smashed. A 34-year old De La Hoya (clearly past his prime) stood toe-to-toe with the "best pound for pound" boxer and barely flinched. In fact, it was Floyd who looked scared at times. Hmm... Maybe the Golden Boy isn't quite finished.
3 comments:
We definitely went into this fight with a bias for De la Hoya. Fact is, De la Hoya was just punching leather the entire fight. For the allure of the sport(which is all but gone), he was making the crowd (who apparently held the same bias) happy, but he was doing nothing. His punching percentages show that. The judges only award the effective aggressor. Mayweather timed his punched better, his power punching percentage was double De la Hoya's, and he was unbelievable at blocking and catching De la Hoya's punches. De la Hoya definitely surprised us with his offensive strategy in this fight, but I am sure that the better fighter won. In a rematch, Mayweather will be the aggressor as he won't risk catching a deadly blow, and that could be disastrous for De la Hoya.
Overall, the second undercard was a more exciting fight. I will be going to a sports venue to see the next one if it comes, rather than paying for the PPV.
I agree with a lot of what you said here. De la Hoya did punch a lot of leather and Mayweather was the better fighter, but what about the whole concept of "prove something to beat a champion." I've seen a title holder retain their belt with lackluster performances. Oscar's performance lacked knockdowns and hard, landing punches, but it was not meaningless. He connected with some fantastic body combinations and was the aggressor for the first 6 or so rounds. I don't think that Mayweather did quite enough to actually take the title from De la Hoya. In a rematch, who knows? How are you going to get tickets to go to the next one? I want to be involved!
I meant a sports bar, I won't be purchasing the PPV. Well maybe we could time our next Vegas trip (I assume we are going to try to do that often.) I imagine they would do it more than a year from now, maybe next summer. I would love to go to a fight. That would rock.
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