MOSLEY REPEATS OVER DE LA HOYA – OR DID HE?

By Ron Brashear
Inside Boxing Writer/Columnist

LAS VEGAS {Inside Boxing – September 13, 2003) – Imagine witnessing a fighter over come one of the most difficult task of avenging a defeat to only discover what seemed to be obvious, just became not so obvious. That’s what happened to Oscar De La Hoya (36-3, 29 KOs) against “Sugar Shane” Mosley (39-2, 35 KOs) on this night in their rematch for WBA/WBC Super Welterweight titles.

Unless my eyes where playing a trick on me, I saw Oscar De La Hoya put on masterful boxing exhibition and actually out box Sugar Shane Mosley. I had Oscar winning at least 7 out of 12 rounds, with a case even possibly being made to score the bout 8 rounds to 4 in favor of De La Hoya. Therefore, I'm struggling to understand how all three judges saw this fight as 115-113, which relates to scoring the fight as 7 rounds to 5 all in favor of Mosley. This was not the same De La Hoya that Mosley faced three years earlier. Call it as you may, but Floyd Mayweather’s stamp was all over Oscar’s performance and this was the best I have seen Oscar look in the way of overall boxing skills.

Considering since there were no knockdowns or point deductions, all of the rounds had to be scored 10-9. So even if we toss out the stats that illustrate that Oscar landed approximately 100 more punches {93 more to be exact} than Mosley according to Compubox punch stats, its still hard to make a case for Mosley winning. Granted Mosley was coming on strong down the stretch, Oscar dictated the pace and action of the fight throughout the first eight rounds of the fight. So much so, that going into the 9th round, I felt Mosley needed a KO, or at least a knock down, to pull out this fight.

Afterwards, I heard the judges and some observers say that Mosley landed the harder punches. Even if you support this view, I only recall one round (the 9th), where a punch seemed to actually show any signs that De La Hoya might have been hurt. That was an over-hand right that landed behind the left ear of De La Hoya that had Oscar reaching out to hold on for a moment. Do you recall others as well? Maybe I need to watch the fight again on tape to make sure it’s not just that I am missing something and I didn’t observe what I thought I observed.

Nevertheless, the ones whose vote counted, have rendered their decision. They said Mosley won, so that’s what it is, Mosley won… When the decision was 1st announced, all kind of stuff ran through my mind, such as:

1. Was it because the –255 odds on Oscar brought in more volume of high-rollers betting this way that Vegas just didn’t want to pay out funds?

2. Was it because Oscar had already announced prior to the fight that he was contemplating retirement, so why reward him the victory if he is not going to be around to generate the revenue that the sport has become so accustomed to with the Golden Boy?

3. Was it because Oscar controls so much of the proportions of the revenue that its not cost effective to do business with him because of how much of the revenue remains with him and profits would be higher to promote Mosley, who may be less demanding, or less controlling?

I truly want to believe, and I am hopeful that none of the items above had anything to do with the decision rendered. I would like to trust that the integrity of the sport has been preserved and these three judges merely called it like they saw it.

While De La Hoya has stated that he will spearhead launching an investigation into the decision on Monday September 15th, I seriously doubt the end result will yield a reversal of the decision. I am curious to see what, if anything, does come out of the investigation.

In the meantime, you be the judge of this fight and ask yourself; did Mosley actually defeat De La Hoya in this rematch? If the answer is not clear, maybe we will see them in the ring once again within a year.

Let’s not forget that we all witnessed a great fight, irrespective of a great decision. So hopefully this aspect doesn’t get lost along the way.

You have just gone InsideBoxing.com

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