Oscar Delivers Unanimous
Decision In "Homecoming"
But Does The World Really Await A Mayweather Rematch?

By William Trillo
Photos: Bret "The Threat" Newton
Golden Boy Promotions filled the Home Depot Center with 27,000 Oscar fans and the jam packed house saw their hero win a clear cut unanimous decision over season 2 Contender runner-up Steve Forbes. The Hollywood writers who just came back from a long strike couldn't have scripted it any better themselves, on paper this one looks great.
 
Unfortunately for Golden Boy the film is already "in the can" and no amount of editing can erase the fact that Oscar just is not the fighter he used to be.
 
Take nothing away from Steve Forbes who gave it everything he had, and for a guy who fought most of his fights south of 140 pounds he did remarkably well.
 
But this was Oscar's show and the focus was on him, and quite frankly, after cutting through the post fight press conference spin job, it's very hard for me to believe that he has any chance of exacting revenge on Floyd Mayweather in the yet to be signed September rematch.
 
Yes, his jab was working, but with a 3 inch height advantage and 4 inch reach advantage, it should have. And yes, he lasted the entire 12 rounds without fading like he has done in the past, but he didn't have Mayweather or Trinidad breathing down his neck this time either, he was fighting a guy who had no business coming in at 150 pounds. And I don't know what that judge who scored every round for De La Hoya was looking at, he clearly took some rounds off.
 
Glancing out my notes I took last night during the fight, I scribbled in round three, Oscar is bleeding on his nose and from his nose and he is lumpy under both eyes. ROUND THREE! This was not something I noted at the end of the 12 round affair, it was less than 9 minutes into the fight. If Forbes can do this kind of damage this early in the fight why should any of us believe that this time Oscar will have Floyd's number?
 
It's a hard sell.  
With that said, look, I know it was Oscar's night on Saturday night. It was an evening that he wanted to give something back to his hometown fans, and he did. No question about it, my scorecard had Oscar ahead 118-110, he dominated the smaller fighter, and that's the way it was meant to be.
 
This was in every sense of the word, a tune up.
 
The problem is that during the tune up the vehicle sputtered and backfired a few times, and against a smaller and weaker opponent that is okay, but when put in with a finely honed machine it could be a drastically different story.  
 
I applaud Oscar for coming home in the final year of his astonishing career and as a Los Angeles sports fan I can thank him for giving all of us one last look at him on the live stage. 
 
My concern is this performance does not lead me to believe he will be able to deal with Floyd Jr. in the rematch and a check with some of my boxing peers today tells me I am not the only one who feels this way. From fighters to trainers the general consensus was the same, "older, slower and losing his punch."
 
It's not a sin, nor is it anything to be ashamed of, it happens to us all, some of us just aren't as quick to admit it as others, especially when those closest to them keep telling them otherwise. 
 
Subplot: The Victor Ortiz Dilema
As soon as Golden Boy announced that hot prospect Victor Ortiz was all of a sudden on this weekends card my Stink-o-meter went into red alert and I started fishing around for exactly what the heck was going on here.
 
Ortiz who was a hot Top Rank prospect last year suddenly fell off the radar after his demolition of Carlos Maussa and was literally nowhere to be seen.
Then out of the clear blue he pops up on this Golden Boy card as a last minute sub. Can someone please tell me when a prospect suddenly is a late replacement? That's a job for tomato cans, not future Champions.
 
Snooping around a bit I found that during Ortiz's hiatus he filed for bankruptcy, got out of his contract with Top Rank, dumped his manager Cameron Diaz and retained the services of...drum roll please.....my readers know him as "The Black Widow"....that's right, Shelly Finkel. I also understand Bob Arum is non to pleased with this entire turn of events so it wouldn't be a surprise if Arum asked Oscar to give the Gold Medal back that he returned to him in a gesture of good will last year.
 
Digging a little deeper I am told that someone started chewing on Ortiz's ear last year right around the Maussa fight and told him he wasn't getting paid enough and it appears Victor listened to the advice, and here we are today.
Last but not least in this little side note is that of all the other fighters on Saturday nights card Ortiz is the only undercard fighter to make an appearance on the post fight podium and he was escorted out by Shelly Finkel on one side and the West Coasts version of "The Black Widow" on the other side, one Rolando Arellano. Yes the same one who once guided both Fernando Vargas & Sergio Mora....do you see me working?

Of course you do.
 
Never second guess the Trillo Stink-o-meter.
 
And oh yeah, I almost forgot, after going down once himself Ortiz polished off Dairo Esalas with a convincing 5th round TKO.
 
You Can Take The Fans Out Of Raider Stadium
But You Can't Take Raider Fan Anywhere
As soon as the Victor Ortiz fight came to a halt I realized I had one too many sodas and I had better make a pit stop before the main event started. When I got to the facility I couldn't believe how long the line was, but like everyone else I waited my turn. Well almost everyone, when I finally get through the door I found a group of guys ( dressed in sliver & black) relieving themselves in the janitors mop bucket and any sink that wasn't being used. It was then one of the boy's looked over and said, "This is just like at The Raider games Homey!" 
 
I rest my case.
 
Dang, I shoulda blogged that, I promise I will get back to the blog this week....promise...yeah right!
Questions Or Comments? Email Will "The Thrill" Trillo