DE LA HOYA & HOPKINS PREVAIL – SEPT 18th FIGHT IS ON

By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

LAS VEGAS, NV (IB – June 6, 2004,) – As most observers and fans had expected, Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins were both successful in winning there pre-requisite fights. What took the night by surprise was the level of difficulty encountered by De La Hoya in route to him winning a unanimous decision win by the score of 115-113 by all three judges over Felix Sturm.

Going into last night’s fights, it was assumed that Hopkins (44-2-1, 31 KOs), who was making his eighth tenth straight title defense, was expected to receive stiffer competition from Robert Allen (36-5, 27 KOs) than De La Hoya (37-3, 29 KOs) was to receive from undefeated and unknown Felix Sturm (20-1, 9 KOs).

However, what we witnessed was a relentless, gut-wrenching performance by Felix Sturm. This German fighter, making his debut in the United States, did more than just hold his on. Sturm showed a good stiff jab that controlled much of the fight, had Oscar’s nose bloody, and had most folks thinking we just saw an upset that was going to prevent the blockbuster showdown between Hopkins and De La Hoya on September 18th.

With Oscar appearing to fade as the fight was going down the stretch, resemblance of his last few fights as well, complimented by the level of accuracy that Sturm was connecting with short overhand rights and repeated jabs (234 out of 541 for 43% vs. De La Hoya’s 188 out of 792 for a 24% connect rate), left Sturm feeling that he just won the biggest fight of his life. Afterwards Sturm stated, “I know Oscar is a big name, the biggest in the business, but everybody in this arena, around the world, and on HBO knows who the better fighter was tonight.”

That could be partly true. Or could it be Sturm simply didn’t CLOSE THE SHOW? Since Sturm indicated in pre-fight conversations that he viewed De La Hoya as his idol, he should have learned from the De La Hoya vs Trinidad fight of 1999. Judges don’t vote too favorably for the guy that gets on his bicycle during the championship rounds (10th -12th) and assumes he has the lead in the fight. Oscar has been on the short-end of decisions of late, namely the Mosley Rematch, and it wasn’t in the cards to be on the short-end this night. I’m sure Felix will watch the tape and see where he could have been more assertive down the stretch and pulled out a victory that was within his grasp. I personally thought a case could have been made for a DRAW.

Oscar was not impressed with his own performance either, “Everything went wrong tonight, I trained as hard as I can, we sparred with bigger guys and I got into the ring, and nothing.” He went on to even say, “In my heart I know I can do better. People have seen me better. I don’t know what it was.”

Nevertheless, the decision has been rendered and the road has been paved for the De La Hoya vs Hopkins fight on September 18th. Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins did his part by cautiously, yet methodically, taking care of Robert Allen in the 3rd fight in which the two of them have met.

Hopkins dropped Allen midway through the 7th round with an overhand right yet Allen managed to beat the count and continue in the fight. While the pace of this fight was not that action-packed (even received numerous boos throughout the fight), Hopkins did what he had to do to secure his big money payday with De La Hoya. He won a unanimous decision by the scores of 119-107 on two cards and 1117-109 on the other card. Bernard offered, “I was more nervous for this fight than usual because there was so much on the line.”

The pre-fight controversy over the selection of referee Joe Cortez appears to have been quashed as well. After the fight, Hopkins stated, “I thought he refereed a great fight, he can referee another fight of mine anytime.”

So we have it. The mega fight between Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya vs Bernard “the “Executioner” Hopkins.

Based on what transpired tonight, I can only imagine one would be asking, how can De La Hoya expect to handle Hopkins if he couldn’t deal with Sturm? Therefore, it will be, in all likelihood, that Hopkins will be installed as the favorite to win the fight. Before everyone rushes off and assumes this foregone conclusion, think about what happened to Smarty Jones in the Belmont. What is expected isn’t always what is concluded.

Here is something to think about. It was also on September 18th five years ago when De La Hoya faced off with Trinidad. He dominated the fight early, faded out down the stretch, and lost the decision. What will have this time on September 18th ? I’m sure we will be tuned-in to find out.

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Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com