Oscar De La Hoya: Pro or Con?

I take issue with that. He lost close disputed ones to Mosley and Trinidad, got KOed by Hopkins at MW and lost to May and Pac while past his best, but he stilll beat Chavez x2, Sweat Pea, Angel Gonzales, Hernandez, Quartey, and Vargas. He won far more big ones than he lost. Never understood where that criticism came from.

 

Dont misunderstand Im not criticizing!! Its simply a statement of his career. As you say when he lost to Hopkins and Pac he was past his prime as was Chavez, Hector,and Pea when he fought them. Mosley, Tito, and Bernard were his biggest fights and he lost. I pretend the Mayweather fight never happened!

 

-Well, its not an accurate statement of his career. As I pointed out, he won lots of big ones.

-Not sure why you just narrow down those three opponents as his biggest fights. The Vargas fight was one of the highest grossing of all time, he had many huge fights. And alot of observers scored the Mosley and Tito fights his way anyway.

 

As a boy I knew nothing about boxing but I knew I wanted to stay up for the Hoya fights.

Everybody knew that man and he had the talent to go with his popularity.

A genuine ATG in my book.

 

I cant argue that!..I too have scored those fights. At worst I still had him beating Tito by 1 round and Mosley is always really really close but I believe I had DLH winning the last fight between them 2. The Vargas win was very impressive if only because he whipped that ass!!

 

The irony about Oscar's career was that he was viewed as being a bit of a cherry picker when he was first coming up the ranks. He was accused of feasting on smaller, older opponents through his junior lightweight and lightweight tenures. It may not have been fair of people to make that criticism, but some held that view during his early years as a pro.

That said, he wound up facing pretty much every relevant welterweight there was to fight in the 90's and did well against of them. Can't really fault the work he did throughout his career, really.

 

People knock Oscar for losing many of his big fights, don't do the same with the likes of Griffith, McLarnin, Burley, insert 1920s fighter, etc etc.

For me he's someone who could hold his own winning some and lose some against the best. Many who are considered top30 P4P of all time were

These type of boxers should rate below the truly dominant champions though. The likes of Jones Jr, Ali, Greb, Mayweather, Whitaker, Louis, Charles were clearly a level above their contemporises in the way they dominated the sport.

Past it Chavez/Gonzalez and moving up in weight Henandez aren't in the same bracket as the others. Vargas is sort of in the middle of those.

Quartey I thought beat him comfortably, Whitaker I've scored both ways, Mosley 2 and Trinidad I had him winning though.

 

Fought everyone

Great fighter

Atg status assured

 

-Chavez, Vargas, and Gonzales were very big matches, it depends on what you define "big match" as.

-I never saw it that way, I was a huge Quartey fan as he was seemingly so underappreciated and still is, I was rooting for him, and as I was watching it live, I tried really really hard to score it his way, but I thought he blew it in the 12th. You could argue Quartey just edged it or a draw, but comfortably? Nah.

 

Being knocked down/hurt in the final round shouldn't matter if you win 8-9 rounds, which Quartey did unless you score highly for hitting gloves and shoeshinning in the last 20 seconds.

Significantly one of the same judges who has Oscar beating Quartey had him losing to Trinidad.

I have far more sympathy for Oscar fans saying he deserved the Whitaker decision, but the Quartey one is a step too far.

And Chavez/Vargas were biggish sellers, neither were elite at the time though. Randall pretty much destroyed Chavez's credentials. Vargas was looking shakey after a devastating loss. Gonzalez wasn't a top guy either. If you're going to call them big fights you may aswell call Mayorga a big fight. All of them are clearly not as good as the top bracket he fought, ie: Hopkins, Mayweather, Whitaker, Quartey, Trinidad, Mosley. I think it's reasonable to have him 3-4 against them at best, 2-5 is what I'd rate him at in those though.

 

I too thought the Quartey fight bordered on robbery with terrible judging. That said Oscar owes boxing nothing, and his highly regarded status is justified.

 

-No, but its the difference in a close fight. I gave you my impression of the fight when I last watched it live on PPV all those years ago. And I remember trying very hard to realistically give it to Quartey. Almost every score I've seen of the fight since still has it close. I'm skeptical of anyone who would try to claim the fight as a comfortable win for either man.

-I'm not asking for sympathy, you were responding to my post afterall.

-I'm not going to argue the semantics of "big fight" Vargas, old Chavez, Hernadez, even Mayorga..etc. would be counted as big fights or top level wins for anybody else who hasn't mixed it up with the level of competition that Oscar has. Shouldn't you just say the absolute best of the best he fought? And 3-4 arguable is remarkable against that crop.

 

Very very good just short of ATG status

 

Oscar was a very good fighter with some great skills. I never used to understand why some would give him the `chicken` label... He really fought everyone,certainly no cherry-picker. Some great points have been made regarding losses he suffered,by making note of great fighters in the past who had multiple losses. This happens when good fighters take the risk, and put it on the line against other top tier fighters. He had some great wins and even his losses (some quite controversial) were against top tier fighters. I don`t hold his losses against him because he gave us some great nights of boxing by fighting the TRUE big names in the sport. A beyond his prime Oscar was beating PBF until he stopped using his jab... So he lands as a very good accomplished champ who falls a whisker below ATG status...

 

Great points a usual PP !