Is Ike Quartey an underated Welterweight?

i agree with you there except for the scores. i thought oscar well deserved the nod because Ike was not forcing the fight enough. he was too laid back. if ike had of been more aggresive he would of won. but it was far from vintage de la hoya

he really had a lot of personal probs at the time

 

:huh Oscar was the one taking full rounds off except for small ineffective flurries at times, while Quartey was constantly pressing the fight and pumping out the jab as he always did. I think you need to re-watch the fight. It was De La Hoya who was the complacent, pacing, low workrate fighter. Quartey did what he always did.

 

i have seen the fight a few times. boring fight bar 2 rounds. both were taking rounds off thats why it was not always exciting

 

Quartey wasn't as aggressive as expected. He simply hung back at long range. For someone who had been at welterweight longer than De La Hoya and who had a chilling right hand, he let De La Hoya off the hook on a number of ocassions. Especially after dropping De La Hoya during the 6th round. If he stepped on the gas a bit more he could have stopped him. But instead of doing that he was back behind the jab, with only the ocassional right hand. Quartey got into a tactical battle. Yes, was always knew he could box, but he boxed aggressively with the bazooka right looking to take his opponents head off. He wasn't outright aggressive enough IMO.

Anyone can say whatever they want about the fight. How close they had it, etc. Quartey was robbed, etc. But he won only three rounds convincingly. 7, 8, and 9.

The early rounds were close, 3-2 either way after 5 completed rounds. 6 to Quartey, and 7, 8, 9, and De La Hoya won rounds 10, 11, 12. One of those were close, obviously not the 12th.

 

Still, there can be no doubts that throughout the fight he was the aggressor, the man coming forward initiating the contact.

 

He wasn't coming forward. For about 20% of the fight, yes. Someone being the aggressor IMO comes forward looking to get into exchanges. Quartey used more lateral movement than De La Hoya, who seldom used his legs to his advantage. Quartey for the vast majority of the fight boxed De La Hoya. Even the rounds he dominated he wasn't outright aggressive, thus letting De La Hoya off the hook. De La Hoya's tactics were thrown up in the air with Quartey's strategy - cagey - like Duran was against Hagler.

PS: Seen the fight many times.

 

Quartey was one of the best welterweights in the early 1990's in a decade of serious prospects. Some say he was rusty by the time he fought DelaHoya but he still was in good shape. I don't care what anyone says about the DelaHoya fight. My firm belief to this day is that Oscar was given a gift decision and Quartey won that fight by minimum of two points. I'll never forget what Jim Lampley said in the comentary after the tenth round. "Going into the last three rounds Oscar DelaHoya is in trouble." Regardless of the knockdown in the last round, there's absolutely no way that he won enough rounds to win the fight. The 9th round right hand shot that Quartey landed on DelaHoya was one of the hardest punches I've seen DelaHoya absorb. Like I said before, even worse about the Golden Boy is the fact that he chickened out and ran for the hills when presented with the question of a rematch. I will agree with those who believe a challenger can't take away a champion's title by getting knocked down in the last round. A draw would have been the better score with an immediate rematch to follow. The only winner in this fight was Mitch Halpern, who did a tremendous job, paying close attention to the action and allowing Quartey to continue after Oscar's big flurry in the 12th.

 

Quartey forced the fight more than DelaHoya fought back, IMO. Many rounds during that fight were nothing but Quartey jabbing and landing straight rights while Oscar backed up and returned little. Oscar's flurries at the begining and end of each round don't cut it for me. In the early rounds, Quartey buckled DelaHoya a couple of times yet it seems as though he gets no credit for the early rounds.

 

Trinidad was not running from Quartey. If I remember correctly, they signed to fight, and for some reason it did not come off and Quartey had that 2 year layoff before fighting Vargas.

 

Actually it was 14 months :good

 

Trinidad and Quartey were supposed to fight, but Quartey pulled out when Arum gave him an offer to fight De La Hoya.

It was a pretty impressive performance by Ike, to arguably beat (I had him winning) an excellent fighter in DLH, after being inactive for about 16 months.

Inactivity is one thing that annoyed me about Quartey. After that fight with DLH, he took off over a year before losing to Vargas. Then he took like 5 years off.