Watched Delahoya vs Chavez 1 last night

I remember seeing it at a closed circuit theatre. Mexican crowd, pretty much all of them rooting for Chavez.

That DLH versus the Chavez of 89-90 at 140 would have been a great matchup.

 

Chavez was actually cut during training. Wore makeup over it during all the preflight stuff. Had the headband on during the ring walks.

He didn't want to miss out on the biggest payday of his career.

But the fight was essentially over after one round.

Dumb move.

 

Sure was. Ripping off the public on a big card they did not want to cancel. Gotta love Arum and DKP for all their sincerity about the boxers themselves.

 

I think Oscar gets underrated at times, for various reasons including outside the ring. He was pretty hot in those early years.

 

Agreed. And, it is strange how this has happened.

Not only was he the real deal, but he was also great to watch and massively popular.

While a few late-stage career losses probably haven't helped his rating over the years, I think his popularity - at least, as it seemed to me - has fallen through the floor and might have (unjustly) taken a fair bit of that rating with it.

 

He was a real threat at that weight. He was a 5'11 bean poll with height and reach advantages over all his opponents but had true true KO power. We all found out about how good his chin was at 147lbs later in his career as well. That young version of Oscar at 140 would clean up current fighters like Teofimo Lopez and Ryan Garcia. It would not even be close. His jab and overall power would dictate the fights. Those guys would be on the back foot the whole time. Only issue with 140lb Oscar is that is was not meant to last, with a frame that big it was only ever a short pit stop to welterweight which was natural for his body. He was only at that weight for barely a year.

 

Excellent points JT & MM on ODLH's relatively high profile & late career record curtailing his rating nowadays. I hope you don't mind me adding my own perspective to your comments, as I was guilty of this until earlier this year.

I was born in 82, started following boxing in the early 90's, but initially only the big fights pushed by the British press, media and TV. I became more of a "hardcore" fan in the early 2000's when my interest in our great sport became far wider & more global in scale.

I found the research I completed to support my rankings in Rummy's Sticky thread, where I gave my top 25 fighters from each decade between the 1890's and 2010's, really useful in getting a different perspective on some of the fighter's careers that I researched, on a decade by decade basis. ODLH was one such fighter.

I've been aware ODLH won titles from SFW to MW & aware of his key wins for some time, but having only followed the end of his career "live", as it were, I had a perception of him as a decent fighter, with a strong win resume, but whose profile was considerably disproportionate to how good he was. Even now, I recognise his profile may have not been exactly aligned with how good he was, but once I'd documented his 90's resume, highlights as below, I was soon disabused of the notion that it was "considerably disproportionate":

• Record - 31-1 (probably 32-0 on fair scorecards)
• Lineal world title record - LWW 2-0 (champ 96-97) & WW 8-1 (arguably 9-0 on fair scorecards - reign 97-99)
• Other alphabet world title record - SFW 2-0 & LW 7-0
• Combined world title record across all weights - 19-1 (20-0 if you credit him with the win over Trinidad)
• Key wins - Pernell Whitaker, JCC x 2, Ike Quartey, Genaro Hernandez, Hector Camacho, Oba Carr, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Rafal Ruelas, John John Molina, Wilfredo Riveria & Jorge Paez
• Losses - Just the disputed loss to Felix Trinidad, which most consider a robbery

The only fighters I ranked higher in the 90's, based solely on fights in that decade, were Whitaker & RJJ, who both rank in my top 30 p4p all time, which is a not inconsiderable achievement when you consider that 1) Depth of win resume is one of my key criteria; and 2) Elite fighters in the 90's didn't fight anything like as often as fighters did many decades prior.

Yep, ODLH's outstanding record in the 90's more than hints at an ATG talent, imo.

 

The loss to Trinidad seemed almost as if fated.
That OdlH was to lose in such a peculiar way in his last fight of the '90s, after having had it all go his way for most of that decade, signaled a distinct shift in his fortunes.

The first year of the noughties would yield another loss, to Mosley (fair and square in their first bout).

Things looked like they might get back on track in what remains as one of my favorite fights, in OdlH/Vargas. But then, another strange decision gets dropped on him in the Mosley rematch - after which, his two bouts at 160 don't go well - each for different reasons.

Beyond the Hopkins loss, De La Hoya was more promoter than boxer and he became a bit of a show pony, from '06-'08. He was still a huge draw and could make any fight a bonanza (cue Mayeather Jr and Manny Pacquiao).

Despite the big names involved in those latter years, I found his 2006 tussle with Mayorga the most entertaining of the lot - A resurgent Oscar De La Hoya and perhaps the last glimmer of that '90s megastar at his clinical best - getting the job done inside six rounds.

 

Whenever I think of this fight, I think of Chavez coming forward and it was like he was walking into a propeller blade. All I remember is Oscar's fast hands and Chavez' head and face getting bounced around like a bobblehead doll.

This has always made me wonder, does any version of Chavez beat De La Hoya? Does the version that beat Rosario or Meldrick Taylor beat Oscar?

 

It was a sad night for the Mexican fans to see their King dethroned. As the saying goes "Out with the old and in with the new".

 

It was a kind of passing the torch type fight, the young star beating the older legend.
It was sad for us that had followed JCC all the way thru his career buy that's boxing for ya.
The second fight, obviously he lost again but he didn't do too bad.

 

That's it BB.

 

Don King didn't have anything to do with that card. That closed circuit disaster was all Bob.

Chavez left King in 1996 to fight for Arum. Chavez was Don King's guy when Tyson was in prison. But Mike Tyson was out, and he was Don King's sole focus in 1996.

So Chavez signed with Top Rank and fought three fights for them in 1996. After headlining these massive PPV cards for years, Arum put Chavez in with 'Pink Cat' Walker, Oscar and Joey Gamache, and Chavez went running back to Don King.