De La Hoya: The Win Mayweather Needs Most

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

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. [details]

[sharky]

The Fight Mayweather Needs Most

The originator of the peace suggests that the reason the fight will pose so much difficulty for ODLH is because he has never faced a fighter as fast as Mayweather save Whitaker. Is he crazy? As quick and slick as Sweet Pea was, how could anyone dare suggest he was as fast as the Mosley who fought Oscar in the first fight! I've been watching Mayweather for his entire career as well as Mosley, and as far as pure hand speed goes Mayweather has never been as fast as Shane; at least the lightweight and pre-Forrest Mosley goes. The difference is, Mayweather fights at a more economical pace than Shane and throws his combos from a more defensive posture which appears to the veiwers that he is using less effort to hit his apponents; whereas Shane throws or threw his combinations in esplosive bursts of speed, creating the illlusion he was working harder. Oscar has indeed faced someone with comparable if not better speed than Mayweather--and his name is Shane Mosley. Having said that, I surmise that this version of Oscar will find some difficulties in connecting cleanly with Mayweather due to Floyd relative disdainment for engaging his oponents in attrition combat. I see this bout as a relatively pedestrian and uneventful encounter with Floyd winning by majority decision. However, I can imagine a late round KO by Oscar if Floyd decides to lay on the ropes for a period of time to utilize his famous shoulder rolls. Only then can I see Oscar connecting with hard shots to the body to bring Floyd's hands down to land something meaningful to the head. This person believes Shane represents a larger, more competitive fight with Mayweather then does Oscar. In that fight, Mayweather would be facing a strong, still relatively fast and combative fighter who will engage Floyd and make him fight defensively like he never had to fight before. Without any undue bias towards Mayweather, I really think a well trained and focused Mosley even at the juncture of hiws career can take Floyd out in brutal fashion. I like Shane by middle to late round stoppage!

Sharkman

[!! Mr. Soprano]

Sharky.. welcome to Boxingscene...

Turned your Karama allllllllllllllllllllllllllll green!

Keep up the good work ;-)

[pbftxrs316]

here's the bottom line, floyd is going to defeat oscar because of how well he'll be conditioned for this fight. that's the key, floyd will be in great condition and he will also bring a different style to oscar when they fight. call me crazy, but nothing that oscar brings to the table will hurt mayweather, trust me. floyd is going into this fight with a confidence that is rare in boxing today. he is going to gatti oscar and mark my words, he won't get the respect after the win, because of his arrogance. but, thay won't matter because he's a much smarter fighter than oscar. floyd is going to damage oscar, and i believe he will fight winky wright before shane mosely, so in other words, he will not retire imo but who knows for sure? he will beat shane because of his style. shane is still a good power puncher and does pose a challenge to floyd but floyd is a chess player in big fights who usually has that extra move needed to checkmate his opponents and shane is no exception. it's about technical prowless in being a great boxer, and does have that tool that makes him better than everybody else. he is the smartest fighter in boxing today, which is why he defeats shane. now, with winky, this would be floyd's toughest challenge out of the golden boy trio, and winky's defense has nothing to do with it. winky would get hit by floyd if they fought, but winky is packing some authority to his punches which would pose a challenge to mayweather's chin well as his ability to take it to the body. now, if floyd can withstand all of this, he defeats winky as his speed and footwork would make winky look like he doesn't know what he's doing in the ring with floyd mayweather jr. floyd would win all of these fights as well as margarito, hatton, and cotto because of his smartness and will to be better than everybody else which he is.