De La Hoya's resume

atsch So you fault him for making the most of his career??? Everybody does it man towards the end of their career...IMO thats not ducking.

 

That's what someone viewing his career on boxrec would conclude.

But those of us who have seen DLH-Tito and DLH-Mosley II knows he won both megafights convincingly.

 

While I tend to agree you can't really fault the decisions either way.
The bottom line is, Tito fight should not have been that close. He should have closed it. He could have easily got 2 more rounds at the end by just being active and staying with the game plan that has given him the lead. But he did not.

 

I never get the whole, he ducked Winky and Forrest. Tell me when he should have been fighting them?

Because Oscar did a very good run of Vargas, Mosley 2, Sturm, Hopkins, Mayorga, Mayweather, with rather unhealthy breaks and business ventures in between. Maybe Henry Armstrong or Robinson would have fought often enough to squeeze in Winky and Forrest but this is the modern fight game. We don't see that kind of activity at all anymore.

 

It is crazy, because there isn't a fighter alive who you couldn't list people who were around in his era that he didn't fight, and list them as people he avoided or ducked, when the reality is that no fighter has the time, interest, motivation or promotional muscle to fight absolutely every single top fighter of his era.

Ray Leonard fought Benitez, Duran, Hearns and Hagler - should we say he "avoided" Aaron Pryor?

Manny Pacquiao spent his time from 126-130 fighting Morales, Marquez and Barrera, and yet people on this forum say he "ducked" guys like Nate Campbell and Joan Guzman.

You see where I'm going with this? Unless a fighter fights till he is 50, he cannot hope to squeeze every single title-holder of his era into his resume. It's just not realistic/practical.

 

im not faulting him for it at all, he has one of the strongest resumes of the last 25 years. However if you say he avoided them thats a fair statement not meant to critisize the man.

 

DLH fought at least 7 #1 PFP fighters, no other fighter even comes close.

DLH's victories over Pea and Chavez alone trump anything the current top fighters(Pac and PBF) ever did.:deal

 

Closed it how? Many people on these forums have him winning 9 or 8 rounds in the fight. How was he to close it? By knocking out an iron jawed welterweight like Tito? Or going into range, when he was both clearly tired and believing he was ahead on the scorecard.

 

Irrelevant. He won the fight clearly going by the rules of the sport. If someone has already won 8 rounds, it doesn't matter a **** if he chooses to tap-dance the last 4 rounds, the way the sport is scored means he won, and whether we like or dislike his approach late on, he was horribly, horribly robbed.

 

Harsh words. Too harsh. Manny for one has built up a very strong resume and Floyd has built up a solid resume too despite his clear disinterest in the sport.

 

As you can see from this thread so far, I am a staunch supporter of Oscar's resume. However, your second statement is absolute pig-****. Being unable to assert yourself over a years past his best Sweet Pea and beating down a near-shot Chavez do not "trump anything" Pac and Floyd have done at all. Pac's win over Barrera is much better than Oscar-Pea or Oscar-Chavez, as he dominated and destroyed a prime/near-prime MAB.

 

I'd say someone like Cotto has a great record going by his eras standards. Oscar had a great record going by any eras standards.

 

I get what you mean and I partially agree, allthough he didnt duck them you can say he could have fought him instead of someone else.
Lets take margarito for example, he cherrypicked pac instead of fighting margarito at 154 that a lot of people were hoping for. Do I blame Oscar for it? absolutely not he has proven himself plenty of time and was at the end of his career. If someone said hey he avoided marg to make more money vs a fight that seemed easier in Pacquiao then that is correct.
If hypothetically speaking cotto now redeems himself vs marg beats chavez jr and becomes big at 160 and people really want to see cotto vs let say lemieux, yet he decides to fight Amir khan at a catchweight because it makes more money. Do we lable him a ducker? Of course not but we can say he avoided it for more easier money, yes. Once guys have proven they have balls they get a pass in my eyes. I know I will give cotto one, haye on the other hand would get rightfully critisized. Depends on the guy.