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 Mosley Shocks De La Hoya, Wins Close Unanimous Decision
By Doug Fischer (September 13, 2003)
Photos © Chris Farina
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De La Hoya vs Mosley ROUND BY ROUND
In our round by round report Jason Probst scored the fight 117-111 for De La Hoya
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 13 — No matter how great a fighter is, no matter how many weight classes and champions he may have conquered, there's always someone out there who can give him hell. Shane Mosley seems to be that guy for Oscar De La Hoya.
For the third time, the second as a pro, Mosley out-pointed his childhood rival in a closely contested boxing match, even though De La Hoya vehemently disputes no. 3 and the official judges who unanimously scored the bout 115-113, or seven to five in rounds, for Mosley. Many of the fans in attendance believed De La Hoya was robbed. HBO's broadcast team thought De La Hoya deserved the victory. The ringside media was evenly split on thier opinion of who won tonight's mega rematch that soldout the MGM Grand's Garden Arena.
"Obviously, I thought I won ," said a stunned De La Hoya, who dropped to 36-3 (29). "I didn't even think it was close. I won by a lot of points, at least by three. It wasn't even as close as the Trinidad fight."
"My son won this fight," said De La Hoya's father, Joel Sr.
With only a few rounds left in the fight, Mosley's father and trainer, Jack, told his son that he was behind on points.
"I think what my father was trying to say was that we are in Las Vegas, so I would probably be behind on the scorecards being that this is more De La Hoya's crowd.
"I thought it was a close fight. I thought [De La Hoya] did an excellent job of boxing and moving around, making it difficult for me to get to him, but I thought I was stronger than him down the stretch... my punching power and my physical... I was overwhelmingly stronger than him."
After going tit-for-tat over the first half of the bout, it did appear that Mosley, who assumed the role of stalker, was the stronger of the two. Two of the three judges (Duane Ford and Anek Hongtonkam) scored rounds eight through 12 for Mosley. The third judge, Stanley Christodoulou, scored rounds seven through 12 for Mosley. De La Hoya and many others would disagree with those scores, and rounds 11 and 12 were indeed close.
But the bottom line is that the record books will note that Mosley, who improved to 39-2 (35) and won the WBC/WBA 154-pound titles, won the fight. And despite the much ballyhooed new style that De La Hoya's self-proclaimed great trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., had instilled in his pupil, Mosley's speed, athleticism and body attack seemed to dumbfound the five-division champion down the stretch of a bout, that was often more chess match than battle royal.
Staying true to his word, De La Hoya boxed in this bout. The prevailing thought in De La Hoya's camp was that he lost the first match with Mosley because he tried too hard to knock his foe out, and thus fought a one-dimensional fight. The "new" De La Hoya -- complete with a supposedly better defense, improved right hand and educated left jab -- would do what he should have done the first time around, out-class Mosley.
Most of the boxing press (this reporter included) agreed with that line of thinking. Nobody stopped to think what if Mosley improved on his performance in the first fight? Mosley fought a great fight in that first match that electrified audiences three years ago, but if there was one thing he could have done more of, it was body punching, which was a staple of his offense during his lightweight title reign.
This time around, from the first round on, Mosley committed to going the body of his rival and after some frustrating rounds when De La Hoya's movement nullified his attack it paid dividends in the ninth round, when Mosley scored with numerous power punches.
"I think the body shots slowed down his jabs in the fight, they weakened him in the ninth round, and that opened him up for the left hook to the head, which hurt him" said Mosley. "I thought he was ready to go, but he survived the round and he even came back a little bit in the 10th round."
Both fighters landed their trademark quick flurries in the championship rounds, but it appeared that Mosley had just a little bit more of a sense of urgency and out worked De La Hoya.
"We both fought the fight of our lives and it was a great fight," said Mosley. "I thought it could have gone either way, but I got the victory.
"Oscar's a hall of fame fighter, he's fought and beat everybody, but I'm that guy he just can't get by."
Vernon Forrest is that guy for Mosley. Ricardo Mayorga is that guy for Forrest.
Perhaps, if De La Hoya decides to fight on, fans will get to see how Forrest matches up with the Golden Boy, or how Mayorga matches up with Mosley. Or vice versa.
From the sound of De La Hoya at the post-fight press conference, he doesn't plan to hang up his gloves just yet. He plans to fight on, but not immediately in the ring. De La Hoya says he's taking his fight to the court rooms.
"This is not against Shane Mosley or his team whatsoever, I grew up those guys and I love them, but on Monday I will put a full investigation on what happened tonight," he said. "I just feel that decision should have gone to me. I have the financial resources to put the best lawyers on this and get to the bottom of it.
"It's not about retirement, it's about the sport of boxing. Boxing doesn't need this any more. It doesn't need bad decisions. If you look at the CompuBox punch stats, I beat him on everything -- jabs, power punches, total punches."
Odds are seriously against De La Hoya overturning the verdict, and he said he will decide if he wants to continue fighting in later days, but it sounds like there's still a lot of fight in him.
"I'm ready to take action," he said. "We've seen a lot of bad decisions in boxing and I think it's time to put a stop to it, for the sake of boxing."
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