CINCO DE MAY-WEATHER!
Mayweather Jr. Skillfully Dethroned De La Hoya
By Moncayo Blackbull

INSIDEBOXING.com (May 6, 2007) - Floyd Mayweather Jr. walks into the ring wearing the colors of Mexico and a sombrero. The outfits worn by team Mayweather Jr. were tastefully put together and showed respect to the Mexican holiday Cinco De Mayo. Some team members, including Roger Mayweather wore tee-shirts reading “Mexico Loves Mayweather”. Even famed rap artist 50 Cent wore a red, white and green bullet proof vest while rapping to Mayweather Jr.’s ring entrance.

I was a bit surprised that De La Hoya (wearing red) did not wear the colors of Mexico, especially since it was the Mexican holiday Cinco De Mayo, when Mexicans celebrate victory over the French.

Victory belonged to the fighter wearing the Mexican colors as Mayweather Jr. prevailed over De La Hoya with a 12 round split decision victory.

Mayweather Jr. won this fight because he fought utilizing his skills and talent where De La Hoya did not. Instead, De La Hoya elected to rush Mayweather Jr. and throw barrages of punches, punches that were a little on the wild side.

Not a skillful fight for De La Hoya, as the fight went on, it became meaningless that De La Hoya was the bigger and stronger combatant. It did not matter that De La Hoya had the reach advantage, it did not matter that De La Hoya possesses great boxing skills because De La Hoya did not fight with his talent.

The animal came out in De La Hoya and it cost him the fight.

The contest started with both fighters fighting round one with that “Show me what you got” attitude. Not so much of a feeling out round as much as a “You go first” round. It did not take long for the flavor of this contest to materialize, in the second round, De La Hoya became the aggressor moving forward and throwing punches. Mayweather Jr. fighting more defensively, blocking and making De La Hoya miss a lot of his punches. Still, the pressure was on by De La Hoya.

This theme remained the same throughout the contest, however as the fighters loosened up, the action became more intense and made a good fight.

De La Hoya kept the pressure on Mayweather Jr., not allowing Mayweather Jr. to ever get comfortable but again tired in the championship rounds. Although De La Hoya finished the twelfth and final round strong, he let Mayweather Jr. pick him apart in rounds nine through 11.

In my opinion there is no controversy riding this contest, Mayweather Jr. won this fight fair and square. Mayweather Jr. fought his fight and De La Hoya did not, period

For those of you who did not get the opportunity to see the fight, you can base you own opinion by watching the replay on Saturday, May 12 on HBO.