The more fights I watch and the more I study their records the more I lean towards Trinidad. Oscar may have been flashier and far more popular, but he really did take a lot of Trinidad's left overs. I don't know if that was the point, building towards their massive fight, but eh'. Trinidad fought and beat the following fighters before Hoya. Camacho, Vargas, Campas, Mayorga and Oba Carr. In my opinion he fought better versions of all of these fights. Campas was 56-0, Vargas was undefeated and not damaged goods. Camacho was still a very decent fighter. Mayorga's chin hadn't been broken and Carr, well, Trinidad stopped him while he was undefeated and Hoya did so as well in far less impressive fashion. There's also the fact that Trinidad had far far more impressive accomplishments at MW then Hoya could ever dream of. No dodgy decisions except the Hoya fight. Quartey and Sturm both spring to mind and the crap cards in the Mayweather fight as well. More decesive wins in general. And Trinidad rose in weight nearly from where Hoya did. He didn't even mature into a full fledged WW until he had been fighting for 3 years or so. So, thoughts?
Na. You see, very little of DLH's legacy rests on fights with the likes of Mayorga, Campas, Camacho or Carr. Vargas was a significant win but the rest were simply 'filler' for DLH. DLH gets my vote because he actually fought a fantastic array of fighters at welterweight, something Trinidad didn't do. DLH faced a still excellent Whitaker, Quartey and Mosley and Felix faced who? Utterly shot versions of Whitaker and Camacho, as well as prime versions of Carr and Campas. Simply not in the same league. DLH furthermore, wasn't even a natural welterweight for mine. He did his best work and looked his most impressive at 135/140. Despite that he still managed imo to beat Trinidad and Mosley in the rematch, whilst beating a roided up shape of his life Vargas in better fashion and he arguably beat Whitaker and Quartey too (had him losing by a point to Pea and had the Quartey fight a draw). Sure, Sturm battered him and easily defeated him, but DLH was never a middleweight and so I don't hold that loss against him much. If you have Tito beating Oscar you could possibly mount a case, but without it, Trinidad doesn't have a leg to stand on in the argument.
Love them both, But De La Hoya is that dude... (besides winning the fight against, IMO. he notched himself an ATG career) Maybe proving that sometimes fighting top comp, is all that matters.