Whittaker vs De La Hoya

I just watched it properly for the first time in ages having only watched it once before

I think it's really hard to give it to whitaker if I'm honest even though I never really rated oscar that highly, he impressed me in this fight.
I thought It got harder to score as it went on, but I had Oscar 4 points up after the point deduction and it's pretty hard to give Whitaker enough rounds to win after that, even with the Knockdown.
I thought Whitaker did better later on and he maybe could have shown caution to the wind earlier. He hardly threw any body punches either.
Having said all that, a draw would have been alright as I can see how people would say Oscar didn't really do enough to win either, particularly If you think you have to dominate the champion to win ( I don't )
Nonsense to say this was a robbery though.

 

Whitaker won it close. Neither fighter burned up the canvas. Pea didn't land solidly much and neither did DelaHoya. Oscar appeared to have no gameplan. Just jump in with flurries and hope a left hook lands.
Well Pea was ready for that. He wasn't going to let it be easy for Oscar. De la Hoya should have been working behind the jab and digging to the body like a good pro would have. He was exposed more or less for his inexperience.

 

I agree but disagree. The disagree part is for Oscar should've jabbed more and worked behind that He losses that fight very decisively if that is the gameplan. Nobody really is beating Pea is a jabbing match or a match that starts with jabbing and working from there. I believe Oscar early on realized he can't outbox Pea in a traditional sense, and when he was jabbing with Pea he was losing those rounds. I believe Jim said Oscar forgot about his Jab it seems, and Roy responds, yeah, he's realizing he can't Jab with Pea so he's trying to outwork him and steal rounds. That was his only way to win, he wasn't winning a traditional chess game boxing match against Pea, not many in history would.

 

Whitaker had lost his elite offensive timing and ability to pull the trigger by this point despite his defensive reflexes still being in decent nick. More of a very tricky spoiler by this point rather than the defensive genius with prolific attacking output of old. Oscar looked clueless for long stretches but Pea didn't let his hands go nearly enough to put the type of daylight between them that would've been required or that he might have done a couple of years earlier. A shame really. Still, I thought he deserved the nod, a draw at minimum tbh, but he couldn't truly complain.

 

Excellent post sir.

 

Well put, It would have been a decision for the romantics had Whitaker won though.

 

Pea won the fight. Dropped Oscar as well. Oscar was ineffective never hurting or stunning Pea.
Not to mention Pea was the defending champ.

 

tough t*tty said the kitty when the milk went dry .. You clown around and that's what you get. Pea ******* up simple as that .. I thought he won a close one tho, but you have to take the fight when its there for yours to have and he didn't do that