By Tom Donelson

Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com

 

During his ventures through various weight divisions in the last decade, Oscar De La Hoya has fought most of the elite fighters in each respective weight.  With the exception of Shane Mosley in their first fight and Bernard Hopkins at the middleweight level, no fighter has clearly beaten him.  Whereas Oscar De La Hoya has fought most of the better fighters, Floyd Mayweather has on occasion taken the path of facing opponents that offer the least resistance.

When Mayweather was a junior lightweight, he clobbered Diego Corrales on route to an eleven round stoppage in a career defining fight, but then he moved up without fighting the top fighters at the weight, Joel Casamayor and Acelino Freitas. 

To date, his toughtest fights were against Jose Luis Castillo, who gave Mayweather the most trouble in the 24 rounds they fought.  After a quick tour of the lightweight and junior welterweight division, Mayweather once again moved up in weight to welterweight. 

He easily defeated Jab Judah and Carlos Baldomir, two of the best Welterweights in the division. While many have criticized Mayweather for the opponents that he has fought, he could have fought a lot worse.

The difference between Mayweather and De La Hoya, is that De La Hoya  has always been the huge draw regardless of the opponent. On the other hand, Mayweather could not even sell out his own hometown. De La Hoya has it and Mayweather wants it.

This brings us to the De La Hoya-Mayweather bout coming up in May.  For De La Hoya, his legacy is secure. He has been one of the better pound-for-pound fighters over the past decade and if nothing else, he proved to be one of the few fighters who could sell out arenas and attract big pay-per-view numbers.  His greater legacy may be what he accomplishes outside the ring.

For Mayweather, his legacy is yet to be determined. One of the most talented fighters to enter the ring in the past decade, no one can question his skills. The two things that people have questioned about Mayweather has been his lack of a key defining fight to determine his greatness, and the relative ease that he displays when he beats his opponents. The former is problematic since the best fighter he faced was Jose Luis Castillo, who has been the best lightweight outside of Mayweather over the past decade. 

Castillo has defeated both Corrales and Casamayor and he nearly defeated Mayweather in their first fight.  The problem is that Castillo's lack of big name recognition has diluted Mayweather's accomplishment in defeating him.  It's as if the fight never happened or has long since been forgotten.

De La Hoya has had many defining fights, which include close wins over Pernell Whitaker and Ike Quartey, followed by close defeats to Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley. His last victory over Ricardo Mayorga was just another notch in De La Hoya’s career. For De La Hoya, half of the fights that he has participated in have been for some version of a  title and he managed to notch 20 wins in these bouts .  As for Mayweather, he has yet to taste defeat and has been involved in 14 different championship bouts, (15 counting the Judah bout but I don’t, even if the IBF did.)

This fight has more meaning for Mayweather, than for De La Hoya. Floyd right now is a fighter at his peak. Even after his slaughter of Mayorga, De La Hoya is not the fighter that he was a few years ago.   At the age of 33, De La Hoya is essentially a big event fighter and he fights when he wants. The difference between De La Hoya and Mayweather is that De La Hoya doesn’t need to fight on a consistent basis for he has enough money in the bank and a legitimate company to fall back on.

De La Hoya is a businessman who fights and there is very little he can do to detract from his legacy. Win and he adds another big notch to his belt. Lose and he still has enough big names to cement his own greatness and entry into the Boxing Hall of Fame. Mayweather needs De La Hoya to cement his own greatness plus prove that he truly belongs to have his name mentioned among the all-time best. 

This brings us to the big event itself. In reviewing the Mayorga fight, De La Hoya skills proved too much for his foe, but Oscar's hand speed appeared slower than in previous bouts. As for Mayweather, his victory over Baldomir showed one flaw.  He chose to use his quick hands and defensive skills to fight a safe fight.  He rarely used his flashing combinations and was satisfied with jus throwing one or two punch combinations.  He rarely hurt Baldomir, but very few fighters ever have. Baldomir is a tough hombre and with head like concrete; he is not an easy fighter to crack. 

There is talk that De La Hoya will be the bigger fighter and impose his will, which is the ace in his pocket. Maybe, but De La Hoya, like Mayweather, started in a much lower weight division before moving up.

He may be a natural Welterweight, but his knockout ratio began to slide when he entered the welterweight division. Mayweather is not just a skilled defensive fighter, but a tough fighter that has never even come close to being stopped.  He withstood 24 rounds against Castillo and took some good shots, so he does have a chin. 

De La Hoya's size advantages have more to do with the fact that he is taller and has been at the higher weights much longer than Mayweather. Mayweather's advantage will be his hand speed and defensive skills. De La Hoya will of course have the clear edge in the power department.

The real question is whether De La Hoya’s power can offset Mayweather’s speed.  This will not be an easy fight for either of them and Mayweather will likely treat this bout as a chess match, forcing De La Hoya to come to him. De La Hoya is a much stronger puncher than Baldomir, but De La Hoya will never have fought a fighter with Mayweather’s hand speed. The closest that De La Hoya came to a fighter with comparable hand speed was Pernell Whitaker and he barely beat Whitaker in a close decision. (And Whitaker was on the downside of his career.)

This fight is intriguing, possible the one to break all pay-per-view records and the world is split on which man will be standing with his hand raised at the end.