for me it was early 97. he was really focused on boxing in them days. he started going off course i think around late 1997 he started going off course. thats when the stories of wild behaviour started circulating i thought oscar looked his best in the gonzalez fight. he really boxed lovely that night and showed a lot of great moves. he boxed great at times against whitaker his finest hour was the fight against quartey though he boxed terrible that night. he seemed in a daze for larg parts of that fight. something was wrong. he clearly deserved the nod IMO but it was quarteys fight to win he regained his 1997 form for 9 rounds against tito. i though he boxed too much in that fight. he should of attcked tito more. he could of got the ko
I liked him against Quartey. You can't go entirely by how good or bad a fighter looks. If your in against a great fighter, chances are even at your best, you're gonna look bad. Quartey was a great fighter at the time.
Physically against Whitaker or maybe even Mosley, as a boxer and defensively he improved and matured against Vargas and Mosley 2 though. In the Whitaker/Quartey fights he got outboxed the later version wouldn't have been as 1dimensional
The JCC-MAG period I'd say. I thought he looked horrible against Quartey. He was in good shape for Tito and the Mosley fights though, but still not as sharp as he was around 1996-1997.
First time I scored it to DLH, second time to Mosley, I forget the score cards. DLH definately clearly outlanded him and Mosley definately landed the more telling shots. The second time I was more in a mood for valueing quality shots. So I can certainly see how the judges would have it to Mosley
He became so uninterested in the sport once he started dictating it... It's politics, massive paydays... Running his business basically. I think he became more and more disgusted with the robberies, whether against him or vice versa. Partly why he fought so infrequently towards the end of his career coupled with falling in love with money and losing his passion.
His defining moments came against Quartay, Trinidad, and Vargas. Against Quartay, he overcame adversity and showed a ton of heart. Then he gave all that away by running against Trinidad, only to regain it against Vargas.
Chavez 1. Even though Julio was far far passed his prime, Oscar showed some serious skills that night. I think that was 96?
