I had a go at making my own Rummy's corner style video to detail this classic bout; This content is protected I don't have quite the voice of Rumsfeld but I thought I'd post it and see what people think anyway. The full version of this fight is available on dailymotion and youtube. I thought this was a great fight between two fighters at the top of their game at the time. Though I am a De La Hoya fan, I scored it 115-112 for Quartey. It annoys me as a fan of the sport that De La Hoya has the loss to Trinidad on his record and this win against Quartey.
I remember thinking Quartey won at the time of the fight. Some very close rounds in that one for sure. I believe Quartey was every bit as good as Tito and Oscar and was talented enough to be in the hall of fame. Too bad he was on the wrong side of so many decisions ( Oscar, Forrest). The long layoffs didn't help either.
This is how I scored it. Excellent fight. Oscar DeLaHoya vs Ike Quartey Round 1: 10-9 Oscar Round 2: 10-10 Even Round 3: 10-10 Even Round 4: 10-9 Oscar Round 5: 10-9 Ike Round 6: 10-9 Ike (both fighters score knockdowns but Ike has the best of the exchanges) Round 7: 10-9 Ike Round 8: 10-9 Ike Round 9: 10-9 Ike Round 10: 10-9 Oscar Round 11: 10-10 Even Round 12: 10-8 Oscar (Oscar scores a knockdown) Total: 115-115 Draw Oscar barely scrapes home with a draw in this one on my card. Actual scores were 116-112 and 116-113 both for Oscar and 115-114 for Ike.
To be honest, I never thought of this as a particularly great fight. Great drama in the 6th and 12th but underwhelming in the other rounds. I had Quartey winning the fight. It’s really testament to his ability that he hadn’t fought in about 18 months either. His fight prior was another one I felt he deserved to win but got a draw with Lopez.
Seems I'm in a minority here as I've tended to feel that Oscar won this one, albeit only very, very narrowly. I actually think there's a case to be made that this might be Oscar's finest moment. He has bigger names and greater fighters on his record, but: Chavez was on the wrong side of the hill by 1996; I don't think it's outrageous to suggest that a 1999 Quartey was a better Welterweight than the fading 1997 version of Whitaker that De la Hoya fought, and Oscar certainly looked a better fighter and less clueless here than he did against Pernell; and he blew it against Trinidad, because even if you think he won (as I do), he did it in a pretty unsatisfactory way in those last three rounds. Whereas here, faced with an unbeaten, very tough and consistent former titlist with one of the best jabs in the business, his title on the line, he found something to save his belt and undefeated record and produced a real champion's finish to take a good fighter's 0. He rose to the occasion when the pressure was on and on my card that twelfth round made all the difference. The Vargas win might be in with a shout given the animosity between the pair and the way he closed the show, but other than that I don't see anything as good on De la Hoya's record as his win over Quartey if you take all factors (not just the name) into account. As for the fight itself, I think for ten rounds out of twelve it was more interesting rather than gripping. More a case of two classic rounds in amongst an otherwise quite good, but not exceptional fight. But one I should probably take another look at soon as it's been a while and I'm a little surprised at how few people seem to agree with the verdict. Quartey just couldn't get a break 1990s and first half of the 2000s. Main Events really underappreciated him and he was always playing second fiddle to Whitaker up until 1997. Duva and co. liked having two Welterweight titlists at the same time so wouldn't entertain making a unification bout against Pea, and at this stage the HBO-Showtime stand off was still in place which meant that Trinidad's IBF belt was off the table, too. After Whitaker lost to De la Hoya and needed a route back to a title, they were willing to match him with Quartey for Ike's WBA belt in 1998, but then of course Pea was outed as a crackhead, hit with a year-long suspension and Quartey was back in the wilderness. By this time Main Events were preoccupied with their '96 Olympic stars Vargas and Judah, while poor Quartey was just forgotten. They fu-ked around so much and for so long that their mishandling of Quartey and inability / unwillingness to get him a decent fight after the Whitaker one fell through ended up getting him stripped, so he went in to the De la Hoya fight as just a challenger when it really should have been a unification bout. Which, of course, he might easily have ended up winning with a different set of judges. Completely shafted against Forrest, too. Shocker of a decision. I guess the draw against Lopez, even though I like most think he won it, didn't really harm his standing or cost him much, and it was a relatively close one...But the Forrest one was a straight up highway job. Fair to say Quartey definitely had more bad luck than good in his career, kind of similar to Reggie Johnson in that respect.
That is really a matter of who you talk to. There are a lot of new boxing fans in my experience who think of Oscar De La Hoya as a promoter first and foremost, they are aware of his boxing career but wouldn’t have thought he was anywhere close to P4P number one.
I agree with a lot of what you say, the exception being I had Quartey winning. If you had Oscar winning it probably was his finest moment. For me one of the main points of interests of the fight was the skill level that it was fought at. Quartey was very unlucky inside the ring. Last I heard though was that he invested wisely outside the ring and is now still wealthy, unlike Trinidad for instance.
As I had it a draw, I don't have an issue with anyone saying they had Quartey nicking it or DeLaHoya nicking it as long as they had it close. That means we were all watching the same fight. It's when people come up with wide scores either way that you have to ask, 'What were you watching?'
Actually, Trinidad-Whitaker, the following week was far more entertaining. Vargas’ fight with Vargas was more entertaining than this too.
