Don't mean to be a ****, but I think its actually Mayorga. Given that Oscar was a past-prime, semi-retired fighter at that stage, Mayorga was a belt holder, the best in the division? Certainly a live opponent, and DLH did a job on on him. Ok, Chavez is a legend and everything, but that was won on an injury. Quartey and Whitaker were not great performances. Vargas, yeah ok, arguabley his best, although DLH was at his peak and Vargas had lost his 'o' by that time. Funny thing is, if Oscar had got the deserved 'w' against Mosley in their 2nd fight, I'd have said that was his best victory, although as things stand for me its Mayorga.
I agree that it would be Trinidad. I'm going off how i saw the fights and i thought Quartey beat him, i thought the Whittaker fight was a draw but would have went Pea's way if it wasn't for a somewhat dodgy point deduction (but hey, you got to comply with the ref), Hernandez and Ruelas are good wins and performances, but i voted for Vargas. I just factored in that imo, his best weight was welter, so he's moved up and put in a great performance against a good fighter of the era. But yeah, should be Triniidad really.
i was all set to vote vargas but i'm glad people are acknowledging his brilliant performance against trinidad. not the most exciting but he outboxed the **** out of a top 10 pound for pounder at his absolute peak. vargas for me comes second becomes he gets flack, or at least got flack, for beaten on smaller opponents early in his career and there he was destroying someone who was significantly larger and stronger
Best victory is Vargas. Best performance is the first 8 rounds of Trinidad. The funny thing about De La Hoya is that he lost most of his fights against truly great fighters.
The Vargas fight was awesome. Thats the first fight I went to in Vegas. The atmosphere was electric (during Mexican Independence Weekend) with all the cholos going for Vargas and all the teenage girls and golf players going for DLH. Good card with Pavlik and Cotto in the undercard. Great fight by both of them.