Oscar De La Hoya TKO6 Ricardo Mayorga 2006 & Jhonny Gonzalez TKO9 Irene Pacheco 2007

WTF do these have in common, you ask?

Well, on the surface they are merely the two title fights pulled from the archives by Telefutura and packaged together on Solo Boxeo last week as "classic boxing" in lieu of any live action.

They are also - and this will be met with some resistance but those resisting will be bulldozed into pulp - both great, under-appreciated wins and great, under-appreciated fights.

In the first fight, you have a glimpse of Oscar's offensive ferocity as he slams El Matador down with his tremendous hook in the opening minute. It just doesn't let up from there. People can talk all they want about Mayorga having been softened up by Trinidad and no longer possessing his peak punch resistance; Mayorga showed a great chin as usual, as well as one of the best displays of his vastly underrated boxing skills (which always came out against the best he faced). De La Hoya did not have a wild, free-swinging brawler standing in front of him and plodding forward - far from it, and anyone who tries to claim he did is either lazily filling up holes in a foggy memory, or intentionally falsifying a revisionist view, or never saw the fight. Mayorga tried to box with DLH, and even showed restraint in throwing short combos behind the jab. Oscar's ability to slip shots from the sides was featured as prominently on this night as his power and relentless aggression, though - and the only thing Mayorga could consistently land flush was the uppercut (with the Golden Boy making the sacrifice in his stance and movement of leaving a path open right up the middle to be prepared to block and slip the more looping high punches that were Ricardo's stock and trade). Some of those uppercuts would have switched out the lights of 95% of competitors at 154 then or since. Oscar could also take a hell of a clanging. When the end came, it was unexpected and brutal and holds up to this day as one of the more impressive knockouts of the last decade.

Jhonny Gonzalez, in his last successful WBO bantamweight world title defense, found himself dealing with a tricky customer in the almost gaseous southpaw Irene Pacheco with his hit-once-and-vaporize style. El Raton was already showing technical improvements here despite some sloppy offense, holding back patiently rather than forcing the issue when something wasn't working. Things weren't working out exactly the way Gonzalez wanted for several rounds, attributable to Pacheco being "easy to touch but hard to wallop". Slow and steady wins the race, however - and knowing what to do (and how) when he has a man hurt has never been an issue for Jhonny. Another brutal and overlooked KO over an opponent who's tougher than they're given credit for (the only other person to stop Pacheco was Vic Darchinyan - not exactly a powder-brush).

Granted, neither the Colombian nor the Nicaraguan were on anybody's top p4p lists at the times of these meetings (nor since) but both each was a legitimate presence at their weight - Pacheco a top contender gaining a head of steam, and Mayorga the mere babysitter of a vacant title but as dangerous as ever and who really "got up" for his daunting first defense of it, both physically and mentally (puffing stogies in the HBO promos notwithstanding).

Again, there isn't a whole lot of rhyme nor reason in drawing a thread between these two fights (although both do feature then-"it" couple Shane and Jin Mosley seated snugly together at ringside). The producers at Solo Boxeo may have simply been looking for showcase performances of two of their favorite sons of Mexico (although, I'm aware, some Mexicans don't want to fully claim the "Hollywood gringo") - yet wanting to avoid airing any non-competitive blowouts or slaughters. These are very good examples of left-hook artistas matched up against respectable opposition over whom they were able to be dominant and show a bit of the other tools that supplement their gancho de izquierda.

Neither is probably going to be hailed as an ATG, but both De La Hoya and Gonzalez should make it into every self-respecting HOF - and when it comes to pure offensive fury, they're two of the most formidable p4p Mexican fighters of their generation. Here was a chance to see them both plying their trade on victims who were not about to lie down for them (but were ultimately forced to through sheer savagery).

If you didn't save Solo Boxeo to your DVR last week, I strongly recommend that you hunt one or both of these down on Youtube (or dig them out if you have career collections of either boxer). Both are quality viewing and worth revisiting.

 

If Oscar wasn't such a bad mother****er in the chin department, that would have been a massive behinds-on-the-cards KO win for Mayorga (imagine his storybook legacy if you add a win like that to the two over Forrest! :scaredas: That would be maybe the best career ever enjoyed by an undisciplined "freestyle slugger").

I don't remember what round it was, but there was an uppercut that nearly flattened Oscar but he just plants his rear foot and throws his arms up in a defensive crouch and somehow gets his wits back about him before Mayorga can finish him off.

It wasn't a pier six brawl, nor was it technical ecstasy - it was almost squarely middle-of-the-road. For those who like to see a little of everything, and some back-and-forth shifts in momentum, it's a pretty satisfying fight to watch.