Boxing
De La Hoya-Mosley: Will it be Redemption or Repeat? Plus Johnston-Lazcano Prediction


by Jim "Boxadamus" De Pierro

12.09 - It is not often that a fight comes along where I will gladly part with $50 to see a night of fistic entertainment. Every hardocre boxing fan knows the pain of shelling out ridiculous PPV money only to be stuck with the cable bill at the end of the month. Even though I am about the biggest boxing nut on the planet I am a notorious tightwad when it comes to buying PPV matches. With most PPV matches I would rather wait a week and see the main event for free on HBO or Showtime.

The last time I saw a PPV fight that was worth every penny was Fernando Vargas against Felix Trinidad. I will admit even the great Boxadamus has gotten burned with his money a time or two on boxing matches that in retrospect he shouldn't have paid for. I actually ordered the Holmes-Butterbean fight last year and to top it off I purchased that Fist Full of Dollars tournament that would have been more aptly named Thunderjoke. Thunderjoke might have been barely worth the $20 if my favorite fighter Derrick Jefferson didn't get screwed by Eugena Williams and company in his fight against Anthony Thompson. My dream match up would be a 10 round main event fight of Derrick Jefferson vs. Tony "the Tiger" Thompson so Jefferson can get some vengeance. If anybody from Jefferson's or Thompson's promotional company is reading this column I would implore you to make this match up. Enough of my rant on Thunderjoke. Delahoya-Mosley stands a good chance of being fight of the year for 2003.

Stevie Johnston 35-2-1 (17 KOs) vs. Juan Lazcano 32-2-1 (24 KOs)

In my opinion Stevie Johnston is still the uncrowned lightweight champion of the world. I personally scored Johnston's two fights with Castillo in Johnston's favorby a razor thin margin on both occasions although technically Johsnton is 0-1-1 on the official ledger against Castillo. Johnston is still one of the best lightweights in the world and I must say I am a little surprised that Johnston is listed as about a +150 the underdog in this fight according to the oddsmakers.

As for Juan Lazcano, I am not impressed. Juan Lazcano may be a top ranked contender but in my book he is nothing but a pretender waiting to get exposed. I will admit I maybe a little irrational in my opinion on Lazcano but I was there in person in the Mohegun Sun when Lazcano fought Jesse James Leija and let me tell you that official result of that fight was an outright lie. Leija should have been given that decision by a wide margin. That fight left a bad taste in my throat literally. I booed that decision so loudly my voice was hoarse for a few days after that fight.

I give Lazcano the edge in the power department and his 4" height advantage could potentially give Johnston problems as Johsnton had a very hard time in his first fight against the much taller Caesar Bazan. Even so Lazcano isn't the biggest puncher that Johnston has been in with and I think Johnston's experience should more than make up for whatever obstacles Lazcano presents. I don't see Lazcano winning more than three rounds against the former champion. Lazcano I think will have trouble with Johnston's southppaw stance.

Stevie Johnston UD over Juan Lazcano


Oscar Delahoya 36-2 (29 KOs) vs. Shane Mosley 38-2-0-1 NC (35 KOs)

Shane Mosley is the only man IMO to have really beaten Delahoya. Detractors of the Golden Boy love to paint him as a phony and say he was given gift decisions over Pernel Whitaker and Ike Quartey and of course they will point to his marathon like performance against Felix Trinidad. No other present day fighter has won belts in 5 different weight divisions. To say Oscar Delahoya is a phony or a chicken only goes to show ones ignorance. Only a punchdrunk formerfighter who has had one to many punches to the head and are envious because they never accomplished anything in their sorry excuse for a career would make such a claim. Most real fighters I think respect Delahoya for his accomplishments and fame. The only fighter who has a legitimate right to gripe about Oscar is Winky Wright. After beating Vargas, Mosley and Wright were really the only worthy contenders out there to fight. For those of you who like to say Oscar is ducking Winky let me ask you this. Who would you rather pay to watch fight Shane Mosley or Winky Wright. I think the answer is obvious, Mosley would win in a landslide. I respect Winky Wright and his skills. Wright deserves the chance to prove me wrong but I think he would lose on points to either Oscar or Shane.

As for Oscar's four closest fights ending in points here is how I saw each fight. I really don't see how anyone can make a case for Pernell Whitaker as being the deserving victor. I will say this for Sweet Pea, he fought an excellent defensive fight and made Delahoya look bad but I don't think he provided enough offense to say he was robbed. It takes more than landing pity pat jabs when the other guy is throwing and landing hooks to say you won the fight.

Against Ike Quartey I think a good case could be made for Quartey but for me the 12th round where Delahoya put Quartey on the seat of his pants sealed the deal for Delahoya being declared the legitimate winner. Regardless. Delahoya-Quartey was for the most part a boring fight not worth arguing over.

I can't say I exactly respect the way Delahoya fought the last four rounds against Trinidad but the fact of the matter is that he did enough during the first eight rounds that barring a knockdown or a knockout, which Tito didn't score he should have been awarded the fight. I really think that had Delahoya been declared the victor that night against Trinidad nobody outside of Puerto Rico and Don King would argue that Trinidad won that fight.

Going into the first fight with Shane Mosley I thought at the time Delahoya was a little too big and strong for Mosley who at the time I didn't think was quite good enough to become welterweight champion of the world in the same division as Oscar Delahoya. Mosley-Delahoya one was really two 6 round fights where Oscar looked the stronger of the two earlier on as he was breaking Mosley down. In the second half of the fight from round 6 and on Mosley switched tactics and by the 12th round was bloodying the Golden Boy with sharp crisp combinations. Mosley won the fight largely because he won the later rounds more convincingly than Delahoya won the earlier rounds.

I think both fighters will turn in a performance to be proud of Saturday night. I don't believe for a second that their is anything wrong with Delahoya's left wrist. Even though it is Oscar and Shane who will be trading punches the real battle of pride will take place with the respective trainer of each fighter. Floyd Mayweather Sr. made the comment that Jack Mosley doesn't know jack to which I think Jack Mosley had a pretty witty retort of Floyd doesn't know Jack or Floyd in reference to Floyd Mayweather Sr. estranged relationship with his son and current WBC lightweigh champ Floyd Mayweather jr. It is kind of ironic but Oscar Delahoya with his praise of his current trainer is more of a son to Mayweather Sr. than Floyd Mayweather Jr. I think both are excellent trainers but Jack Mosley is a little more level headed and is a slightly better trainer IMO than Mayweather who is to egotistical for his own good. I will say this though. If Oscar Delahoya emerges victorious Saturday night Mayweather will stand a good chance of being trainer of the year for 2003.

I really comes down to who wants it more. Shane Mosley is being vastly overlooked by the general public. Mosley hasn't won a fight in his last three outing which I think is leading a lot of people to think that Delahoya is going to emerge victorious this time. To me that just means he is even hungrier than he was before. The odds favoring ODLH are ridiculous and almost completely ignore the results of the first fight. One must also consider that Mosley also holds a victory over Delahoya in the amateur ranks. Delahoya is listed last I checked as a little more than a two to one favorite to beat Sugar Shane Mosley in this rematch but I think in reality this is very much a pick-em fight. I haven't delved to much into the reasons for why Delahoya may win the rematch as i think its fairly obvious given that Vernon Forrest drew the map on how to beat Shane Mosley with the consistant use of a well timed jab. I think Forrest is stylitically a harder style for Mosley to adapt to than Delahoya. For Oscar to win he is going to have to tweak his gameplan.

You heard it here first, this fight will end in a draw. I will probably wrong in my official prediction coming true but I think the potential for a draw is much higher in this fight given the close contest of the first fight and how evenly matched both fighters are. I know draws are always a longshot but I think this is one of those fights where the % odds of one each fighter emerging victorious would be something like a 40%-43%. I think I will think by the end of the night that Mosley deserved to win the fight but it will be one of those fights that boxing fans will argue about for years. I expect ODLH will have a slight edge in political favoritism with the officials. Oscar Delahoya and Shane Mosley will fight to a three way split draw, 115-114 Mosley, 116-112 Delahoya, 114-114 even.

Oscar Delahoya Draw against Shane Mosley

Agree? Disagree? Think I'm full of it? E-mail at boxadamus@surfglobal.net and tell me what you think or post a comment.

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