Joe Walcott v Oscar de la Hoya 147 LBS...

What have you been reading about him?

 

And this is the thing. How does Oscar keep him honest? Gans outboxed The Demon in their 25 round draw, and may have been cut out of a win there. Langford, too out-boxed him. I don't think that Oscar is a better boxer than Gans, for whatever that is worth, but Oscar has a better jab. Oscar has an awesome jab.

Over 8 rounds, I'd favour Oscar for this reason. At ten rounds i'm already starting to get nervous about that pick. Maybe 12 rounds is the tipping point for me? The Demon could drop Oscar with a body shot at any time. It's basically impossible for Oscar to win over 20 IMO. Somewhere in between the black and white turns to shades of grey in term so of making a pick...

A word on Choynski. As you'll likely know, Walcott was a big underdog for that fight. It wasn't like his absolutley extraordinary abilities were expected to pull him through...Choynski was expected to smash the little man up. It was a welterweight against as huge-punching super-middleweight, then as now.

 

Lavigne was undoubtedly brilliant, but Walcott was badly injured his leg in the fourth round (according to his own testimony) and was horrifically weight drained, supposedly suffering cramps in the last days of his training camp due to dehydration but still having to take a pound off the morning of the fight. He was also supposedly stricken with cramps througout the fight, to his legs and gut.

Walcott claimed that he would never try for 132 again and that Lavigne's punches left him unaffected. Opinions vary as to that last statement, to say the least.