THE AGONY OF DEFEAT

By Stephen S. Johnson

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (INSIDE BOXING September 13, 2003) “Sugar” Shane Mosley defeats Oscar DeLaHoya by unanimous decision to win the Junior Middleweight Championship of the World.

This is what the headlines should start and stop with.

Unfortunately the great and powerful Oscar DeLaHoya, he who is on record as saying  no one beats him twice, believes there was some type of conspiracy to see him defeated.

DeLaHoya's ego is so seriously damaged he announced that his own personal investigation into the decision would be conducted, no matter how much it cost him financially.

I would love to have given our Inside Boxing readers the round by round account of the fight, but the sour grapes shown by the DeLaHoya camp must be addressed.

Oscar DeLaHoya has lost 3 fights.

He refuses to believe that he lost any fights.

Most fighters feel they have never lost a fight, but none has ever publicly stated that he will "Do everything in my power to get to the bottom of these types of decisions".

What supreme power does Oscar DeLaHoya posses that will change a unanimous decision against him in his favor?

That will not, should not and cannot happen.

“When I lose it's bad for boxing" is the statement made by DeLaHoya following his defeat at the hands of Felix "Tito" Trinidad.

He truly believes that he is bigger than the sport of boxing.  He is wrong.

He truly believes that being coined "The Golden Boy" means he cannot be beaten.  He is wrong again.

I must tell you that the fight was close.

Very Close.

But the 3 ringside judges came to a unanimous decision that Shane Mosley was the victor

I never saw any of the 3 judges compare notes.

I never saw any of the 3 judges make any sort of gesture toward one another indicating what their opinion of any round was.

My own scorecard had Mosley winning the fight 7 rounds to 5.

The suggestion by Oscar DeLaHoya that there was some type of conspiracy to dethrone him is ridicules, absurd and most importantly insulting.

I say let the great and powerful DeLaHoya investigate all he wants.  He will again be wrong.

He is wrong to insult both the sport and Shane Mosley.

Shane Mosley has lost 2 fights to Vernon Forrest.

He indicated following the 2nd fight how strongly he felt that that he was the victor.

Never once was the threat made to "launch an investigation" into his defeat.

Every athlete learns at an early age one important fact.

"There is no one who is bigger than the sport".

Oscar DeLaHoya is going to have to be shown that those words are meant to be true.

Even for "The Golden Boy"”.