At the end of the Hoya/Carr fight Oscar keeps talking about a "personal problem" that was hindering him in the fight. At the same time he looks like he's in pain when they are cutting off his glove. Does anyone know what the hell he was talking about. I think I remember him having gone through hand surgery before the fight but I could be thinking of the Quartey fight. Anyway, that wouldn't clear up why he says something like, "It's personal, embarrassing."
Read De La Hoya's autobiography , he was very un happy with the person he had become around this time , the fame and fortune as being seen as the Golden Boy had changed him some what and generally he was disgusted in the person he had changed into .
ye i read that before when carr landed a PUNCH he crapped in his pants,there is a pic on net of the stain
He was having some kind of emotional breakdown. The Carr fight was around the time he split from his old 'people', stopped the womanising, drinking and gambling etc.
I've since had time to think about this. As Oscar was saying that he had a very bad personal problem during the fight his right glove was being taken off and he was wincing from the pain. Now, one thing I did notice in the fight is that he pretty much beat Carr with only his left hand, his right hand not being employed at all, and neither much combination work. Now, while it is a given that Hoya was a left-handed fighter and fighting orthodox style it has often been said of him that he was a one handed puncher. This is an exageration as it is well known he did have a great right cross that often precipatated the left hook in a one/two combination. His combinations were always great. So here's my theory; The Trinidad fight was to follow the Carr fight. The Trinidad camp had called Hoya a one handed fighter and said they had the fight in the bag. It's my opinion that the Hoya camp had done something to Hoya's right hand so that he would not use it much out of pain in the Carr fight and so prove to the Trinidad camp that Hoya was indeed a one handed fighter. Now we all know that what proved so frustrating for Trinidad was not the use of the left hand, something Trinidad was expecting, but instead Hoya fought the whole fight using a right cross as his main weapon. The Hoya camp had done something under the wraps that was making Hoya wince so much he could not give a straight interview at the end of the fight and walks away from Merchant in total pain, screaming, "****!"
