26 years ago today: Óscar "The Golden Boy" De la Hoya vs. Isufu "Bazooka/Ike" Quartey

Round 11 - De la Hoya being active but not accurate in the first minute. Quartey fishing with the jab, yanking away when De la Hoya counters past it, wanting a clear look to land his own big counter and not liking any of what he's getting. Nearly two minutes in not a single meaningful blow scored. Quartey popping the jab and knocks De la Hoya's gloves back into his own bruised face (mouse under left eye) with his own gloves with a blocked 1-2. Quartey jabs the body. Quartey with a jab on the face just before the bell.

10-9 Quartey, super close

107-104 Quartey

 

Round 12 - pitch-perfect left hook by DLH. Impressive knockdown, and even more impressive immediate get-up by Quartey. They rumble and the crowd comes alive. Blistering battle with Quartey's back on the ropes. Referees in this situation, especially with the starpower of DLH, might have waved it off here, but Mitch Halpern does a professional job here and has the clarity to see that Quartey is still intelligently defending himself and fighting back. Not only that - but he's now coming forward, bossing it, as DLH has gassed himself out. High drama, more than a minute remains in the contest. A little too much hesitation from Quartey on the advance. Scoring body jabs but that won't cut it here. He needs to even up the knockdown score once again. He fails to do so. If only...

10-8 De la Hoya

115-114 Quartey

 

Bernstein says Quartey shaded it by a point for him, but a draw is reasonable.

 

You can hear Al hiss through his teeth in disgust when Buffer reads out the 116-112 scorecard.

 

Speaking of the dulcet honeyed voice GOAT, prime Michael Buffer calling it the "most entertaining match boxed in Las Vegas since Hagler-Hearns" is some high praise indeed.

I miss scorecards being "brought to you by Budweiser".

 

Not sure how I managed to botch up the maths here so bad, with all the thousands of bouts I've scored.



Homer nods, eh?

If the score is 96-94 after ten rounds, and Quartey then narrowly wins a tight 11th, it becomes 106-103 for Quartey - not "107-104". Jesus wept IB... you left DLH's score the same despite him losing the round, and somehow jammed in an extra point for Ike.

Okay, so revised championship round scores with correct tabulation:

Round 11 - 10-9 Quartey, close, 106-103 Quartey
Round 12 - 10-8 De la Hoya, 114-113 Quartey