Ask any of my fellow boxing friends and they can all tell you that I am a big fan of Oscar De La Hoya the business man, but not the fighter. Look folks first off let's face it Oscar is a good business man, no actually he is a great business man and that is all that he pretty much is these days and has been for a number of years.
Was I ever a fan of Oscar De La Hoya the fighter? Yes I was, a huge fan actually. Oscar's resume is simply amazing. He got to be the biggest draw in the sport by always fighting the best and his resume reflects that.
Whitaker, Camacho, Chavez, Trinidad, Mosley, Hopkins, Mayweather, Pacquiao, all pound for pound champions that highlight Oscar's remarkable resume. It could be even argued that Oscar never ducked anyone through out his whole career.
So when did I stop being a fan of Oscar De La Hoya the fighter you ask? It was the night that Oscar made it clear that he was no longer the Golden Boy of boxing but the Golden Boy of business. This was September 18th, 1999 the night he fought Tito Trinidad.
After dominating and taking Tito to school with ease for the first half of the fight, Oscar began to shock the world and not in a good way by running backwards for the second half of the fight and ultimately literally giving the fight away to Trinidad.
I could not make sense of it. Why would Oscar give up his undefeated record in the biggest fight of his life when he was clearly winning with ease?
I could not make sense of it. Why would Oscar give up his undefeated record in the biggest fight of his life when he was clearly winning with ease?
After the fight the HBO cameras followed Oscar into the locker room which was rather odd for that was not a common practice of HBO but they did and it captured all the facial reactions of Oscar as he walked into his locker room and he was trying his best to show his frustration and anger to the decision going to Trinidad but at the same time he was almost smiling and could not help but have a smirk on his face the whole time.
That smirk told me that this was the official exiting of Oscar De La Hoya the fighter and the official entering of Oscar De La Hoya the business man.
That smirk told me that this was the official exiting of Oscar De La Hoya the fighter and the official entering of Oscar De La Hoya the business man.
As a former fan of Oscar the fighter I was crushed, but I could only use it to my advantage and so I did. Figuring out that Oscar would lose in all his super mega fights from this point on I would always put money on who ever Oscar was fighting as long as it was a super mega fight. This was my: "Always Bet Against Oscar In Super Mega Fights Theory."
So the next super mega fight came Shane Mosley. Mosley was undefeated and on top of the pound for pound rankings so this only told me one thing Oscar would lose and so he did.
Oscar went on to win four more fights after his loss to Shane all decent clear wins but no super mega fights with number one pound for pound fighters.
Oscar then felt it was time to rematch Shane Mosley. By this time Mosley had fallen off the pound for pound rankings due to his back to back losses to Vernon Forrest and his head butting extravaganza with Raul Marquez that ended in a No Contest.
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