Floyd Runs Away With Oscar’s Belt

Written By William Trillo

Photos By Marlene Marquez
 

Boxing is not dead, whoever put it on life support and was ready to pull the plug had better think again. If this weekends World Awaits, Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. event proved anything it’s that with the right promotion and sponsors, big time boxing will always have a place in the hearts of sports fans in America and across the globe. I am sure the soon to be released numbers will attest to that.

Putting those huge numbers aside lets take a look back at the Las Vegas Cinco De Mayo weekend in Las Vegas.

The hype for the Golden Boy promoted card was without comparison and the HBO PPV card was primed and ready to be the greatest show on Earth. Unfortunately for all of us, the show didn’t quite live up to its expectations.

Am I saying the fight was a complete bust?

NO.

To anyone but the layman, which was about 90% of the viewing audience, the battle for the WBC 154 pound title as well as a spot on the mythical Pound 4 Pound list was somewhat (at best) compelling.

But was it worth the price if admission?

You'll have to ask the guy who paid $3000 for a pair of ringside seats. Better yet, ask the guy who paid $5000 on EBay for a couple of tickets in the last row of the building. Chances are they will both tell you they feel short changed.

Now the real question is…what did we really expect?

Floyd has never given us any indication that he is willing to go toe to toe with someone who can whack like Oscar. And on the other side, Oscar beat a made to order cigarette smoking villain last year and lost via knockout the year before that. It’s obvious the fans love their Golden Boy, but truth of the matter is that Gold hasn’t truly sparkled since his 2002 victory over his nemesis Fernando Vargas.

With that said, I am getting the feeling that the fight as viewed by the PPV audience at home was not near as compelling as the one witnessed live by the packed MGM Grand Arena.

The 16,000 plus in the arena, most of them Raider fans….errrrrr….Oscar fans, kept the place buzzing throughout the battle. Even when Oscar was throwing those Joe Calzaghe like flurries on the ropes that were landing on nothing but Floyd’s elbows and gloves, the pro Oscar crowd went crazy. Thank goodness for once that the cheers of the crowd didn’t blind the judges to what was truly going down in the ring.

Now, that’s not to say Oscar wasn’t doing well…because he was. Freddie Roach’s aggressive game plan of pressing the fight and jumping on Floyd was working, putting the fifth round aside, because Oscar nearly got dropped by a right hand from Floyd and lost that round. Oscar was in command early and the crowd did have something positive to cheer for. After seven chess like rounds Oscar was narrowly ahead on 2 of the 3 scorecards.

It was then after those seven rounds that Oscar hit the wall. With five rounds left in the fight it was apparent that Floyd still had a full tank and although Oscar wasn’t running on fumes yet, he had no choice but to take his foot off the pedal if he wanted to make a go of it down the stretch. This is obviously what Mayweather was banking on, and he was correct to do so.

Over the next 5 rounds and in a fashion that most boxing fans have come to know and despise, Mayweather pecked, bobbed, weaved and danced his way around the ring, all the while not engaging while forcing the tired Golden Boy to chase him around and expel the last of his precious energy while Floyd stayed busy with a pesky but harmless jab. And make no mistake about it, Floyd was winning these rounds, there was no way you could give them to Oscar who was coming up short time and time again.

The crowd hated it, and from what I have heard from those watching at home, it was very very very dull and uninteresting. To those keeping accurate scores, it was somewhat compelling because they knew Floyd threw away rounds early and if Oscar could somehow manage to get a second wind, he could foil the well played plan of Floyd’s.

Oscar could not do it although he gave it his best, and after 12 rounds Floyd ran away with (take term literally) Oscar’s WBC 154 belt.

In the aftermath there was some hubbub about scorecards being marked incorrectly and corners being given the wrong colors, or something like that….?? But the fact of the matter is that the “villain” came out on top this time and resounding cries of, “I told you so”, will be heard from camp Mayweather for quite a long long long long time.