Your scorecard for these two Hoya fights

Shane Mosley UD12 Oscar De La Hoya

Not a great fight but an absorbing contest. It was interesting to see two men cancel each other out this completely, how many hooks did Oscar land properly? And how many straigh right-hands did Mosley get across? He did better on that score but it didn't stop Oscar working and the punch stats make disturbing reading for him:

Total Punches Mosley De La Hoya
Landed 127 221 Thrown 496 616 Pct. 26% 36%
Power Punches Mosley De La Hoya Landed 94 115 Thrown 228 320 Pct. 41% 36%
Jabs Mosley De La Hoya Landed 33 106 Thrown 268 296 Pct. 12% 36%


You can see, upon reading these, why Oscar was so upset at the decision. But I didn't get the feelng, watching the fight, that things were anything like as one-sided. Mosley tended to get the harder punches home throughout and from around the sixth onwards he was more aggressive - additionally Oscar looked to be fading a bit.

I've seen Mosley written off as a front-runner more than once on the forum. I understand why, but i'd point to this fight as a contradiction to this. His corner harrassed him throughout and he was told before the last round that he needed a KO. He fought hard and fought aggressively against a man I feel still had a size advantage who also has a granite chin and with their respective offenses balanced pretty much perfectly in terms of doing one-another harm. Oscar had his jab working much better in this fight, too. It was a good showing and enough to get him a share on my card and the title in the real.

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

Draw.

 

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

I guess that scorecard won't be to popular? I actually have never scored this one before. It felt like a robbery to me, it felt like Oscar won it pretty big and that's the way I see it when I actually put pen to paper over it. To be honest, I can't really see how anyone comes up with this fight for Trinidad. The above scorecard doesn't make me comfortable, I hate scoring round after round for one guy, but that's the way I saw it, and if I was to watch it again with "benefit of the doubt" type eyes I think I could only hack up 4 and 9 for Tito. I admit these could be scored either way. That gives me a card of 7-5, at best for Trinidad and I can't see how I could see it any other way.

I thought Oscar's punching was consistently brilliant when he went on the attack, and I think the variety of leads was great to see. He flushes a one-two off a lead left uppercut at one point, leads with hooks to the body, jabs, right hands, you name, every punch really. He doesn't do a lot of punching, but he certainly lands mare than Trinidad by a ways up until he quits fighting. He outlanded him in round 9, which I know is a big one on Tito fan's cards. I think you could give 9 to Tito, but Oscar starts very strong with varied attacks, goes on his bike, but finishes up pretty strong in the last ten seconds with flurries and combos. You can't ignore them as though it were some cheap parlour trick, they are scoring punches, and for me they shadow the round for De La Hoya.

Round 4 is the cricial round to me, as Oscar gets hit hard here twice just standing around and waiting. After that, he never really stops moving, which dominates the flavour of the fight. It works for him though, and Trinidad often looks set in stone, missing punches by literally a foot on a couple of occasions late on. It's such a high energy style though, and I think that gets underplayed a bit. Look how many steps Oscar has to take to keep ahead of Tito in these middle rounds, a ratio of four to one wouldn't surprise me. It's basically an aerobic workout in the middle of a boxing match. There wasn't any decision by Oscar to move those last three rounds, he just didn't have the energy to fight. The best camp he'd ever had couldn't supply him with that kind of energy against a high pressure style. He doesn't get beaten up though, apart from in the twelfth, because Trinidad is knackered also. In fact...they start to look a little like Cotto-Margarito I

I'm honestly not dengrating them though, in spite of Oscars sometimes stiff-shined gallloping style and Trinidad's muted, thumping pursuit, this is just about Oscar's best display. I thought he won handily and deserved the decision. I think Trinidad got exposed a bit here, finally, but showed good discipline and another facet to his game. He perhaps would have done better had he boxed with a bit less discipine, sometimes though?