Scorecards for Whitaker vs. Hoya

Oscar De La Hoya UD12 Pernell Whitaker

OSCAR 2,3,4,7,8,10,12
PEA: 1,5,6,9,11

7-5 Oscar De La Hoya

For the first time ever one of my cards matches Lederman's exactly, I gave exactly the same rounds to each man. It is quite a difficult fight to score and that's reflected in the scorers ringside. Lederman gave it to Oscar, Merchant gave it to Whitaker or saw it a draw depending on what he did with the last round, 3 judges gave it to Oscar, 11 writers gave it to Oscar and 14 writers gave it Whitaker. I make that a dead heat if Merchant found a way to give the twelfth to Whitaker, the slimmest of edges to De La Hoya if he scored the 12th otherwise.

Pea looked like he was going to take it based upon round one, Oscar just looked legitimately befuddled in mp opinion but Oscar was able to up his workrate and just take some chances. His original plan to walk through a fighter who wouldn't even be there if you got there was obviously ludicrous, but the boiled down version worked well for him in about the 17th fight where the HBO crew tells us that Oscar's best punch is his left hook but he can't throw it tonight.

The ludicrous WBC rule regarding accidental headbutts set Pernell a real stall and after he lost the third and fourth on my card I had my doubts, but he put together his only two rounds in a row in the fight in 5 and 6 to make it competitive again and combined with the messy knock down (which evened things up nicely on the cards Karma-wise) he was right back in the fight. Unfortunately for him, Oscar just knows judges and he upeed his game after the 9th and again in the 12th. As we now know, he needn't have bothered his arse, but it was a good determined play.

A real what-you-prefer type of fight, and personally I like to score for the guy that learned the more hurtful punches. I thought it was interesting the way Oscar abandoned his own jab, just like he would against Mayweather years later...I think he thinks he can't throw it when he's being out-boxed, he just needs the statement punches. It worked for him here, but with diminishing returns on his speed, he would get caught out next time.

I do think that Whitaker looked old. Whenever I watch him in his younger days he looks unnatural in the ring he is having such a good time. He always looks to me like he's playng basketball when he's boxing, but here things had a bitter twist - he wasn't quite fast enough.

A word for Oscar's corner who were pitiful. In the rounds that turned the fight around, the third and the fourth, he had great success choping Whitkaer out of clinches and giving him a push here and there. The corner shat it off the cut and read the fight all wrong when they demanded their man stay outside. I think Oscar knew it too. Shame he didn't heed his own heart over the matter, he may have won this clean.

 

114-112 I guess.