Mosley vs. De La Hoya: Sugar outshines the Golden Boy

by Ed Ludwig

13.09 - Shane Mosley (39-2 35 KO’s) may have shocked the boxing world on Saturday night with his unanimous decision victory over Oscar De La Hoya (36-3 29 KO’s) to claim the WBC and WBA Jr. Middleweight titles but the outcome was in no way controversial as people seem to think. The punch stats clearly favored the former champion but as the fight wore on De La Hoya fought more backing up and in the process letting Mosley move in and close the gap.

Throughout much of the bout Mosley fought without establishing any solid momentum. It appeared to me that Mosley landed the more telling blows and De La Hoya scored with volume punches. I had Mosley taking four of the last six rounds based on effective aggressiveness and keeping the pressure on De La Hoya. The end result was a draw as I scored the fight 114-114.

Much of what Mosley threw and especially landed was not always apparent as the camera angles often would be behind De La Hoya as he was backing up a lot and Mosley moving forward. Larry Merchant, Jim Lampley and George Foreman called the fight and much of their views and opinions were pro De La Hoya. To the casual boxing fan I can see that being an influence and in turn make them and think the fight was a robbery.

It was close as the scorecards showed but in no way was it as bad as the HBO announce team and Oscar’s father Joel De La Hoya claim it to be. Mosley looked flat for the first half of the fight and came on strong in the latter half as De La Hoya slowed down. To the naked eye he did look much better than Mosley but it was a twelve round fight and you can’t take any rounds off. There is always the possibility of a rubber match and based on what I watched Mosley will have to take it to another level to keep the titles around his waist.

The judges will be taking a lot of criticism for awarding a unanimous decision to Shane Mosley but keep in mind when Mosley scored he was pressing the action and De La Hoya often landed from a defensive position with his jab. The fighter who looks to be in control and force the fight is usually the one whom the judges remember when tabulating the scores.

Overall I thought De La Hoya looked more sharp and effective but to a certain extent it may have been more of a case of him beating himself as opposed to Mosley. Once again things are wide open and if we do not see the rubber match we could possibly see Mosley try to unify the titles against Winky Wright or defend his newly won crown against Fernando Vargas down the road.