23.03.06 – By James Slater: The recent article that appeared on ESB focusing on possible fixed fights in heavyweight boxing history generated a fair deal of debate, as one would expect. However, amongst the comments that readers left there was some talk as to whether or not Oscar De La Hoya, in his fight with middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins, took a dive in the ninth round. I cannot believe that anyone would seriously entertain such an absurd notion, yet people other than ESB readers are apparently choosing to do so. The very idea of Oscar De La Hoya participating in a fixed fight is something I simply can not and will not accept.
This coming May will see the return of “The Golden Boy” and it will have been almost twenty months since his losing effort against then middleweight king Hopkins. And now, with his comeback set, people are wondering what awaits Oscar and his future as a top class boxer.
Some predict a relatively straightforward return to the top, while others think another humbling KO defeat looms. However, as we await De La Hoya’s return, I find it amazing, and disgraceful, that there appears to be a growing number of boxing people, both fans and experts, who are actually buying into the claim that Oscar took a dive in his stoppage loss. Levelling such an accusation at a fighter like De La Hoya, with all the things he has achieved in the ring, is a very cheap shot indeed.
Therefore, in this article, I take a look back at the Hopkins v De La Hoya fight and argue strongly against this disgusting claim.
The fight was billed as “History”, and set for September 18th 2004 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Oscar was made a big under dog by the odds makers and was widely tipped to be KO’d, possibly in short order. The sell out crowd at the MGM settled into
their seats to watch one of the most fascinating and biggest money grossing super fights of recent years. As De La Hoya said himself, “It doesn’t get any bigger than this!”
A chess match ensued and both boxers displayed excellent skills. De La Hoya surprised everyone, especially Hopkins, by standing his ground and taking the fight to the champion. Most had expected him to use a hit-and-hop-it style, to try and tire out the older man’s legs (Bernard was thirty nine, Oscar thirty one). Instead he used his fast hands to take more than his share of the first six rounds. Indeed, at the halfway point it was in no way clear who would win. Could Oscar pull off such an historic win?
Bernard Hopkins was, and still is, an exceptional fighter. He is old school and has the toughness one would expect from a man who has done time in jail, and is from a place that has produced so many hard fighting men – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hopkins turned his life around upon leaving jail and, after a bad start as a light heavyweight in which he lost on points
over four rounds to a fighter named Clinton Mitchell back in 1988, blossomed into one of the greatest middleweights of all-time. This fight with De La Hoya would be his nineteenth successful defence, were he to emerge victorious. And this he did in the ninth round.
After a good seventh and eighth round, in which he really started to impose his strength and power on De La Hoya, he landed an absolutely perfectly timed left body shot to Oscar’s liver and he was down. In total agony from a shot that had landed on the most painful shot possible, Oscar bravely tried to beat the count. But the punch had virtually paralysed him. You simply
cannot move or breathe after being hit underneath the ribs in such a manner. De La Hoya had been stopped for the first time in his great career. As he punched the canvas in frustration, Hopkins jumped onto the ring ropes and milked his well earned applause. He had just scored the biggest win of his career so far.
In the interviews immediately after, Bernard gave Oscar credit for standing his ground instead of running, and admitted that he’d been surprised by this and his craftiness. De La Hoya offered no excuses for the loss, saying how he had been caught, “Right on the button”, and although he’d tried with all his heart, just could not recover in the ten seconds permitted.
Fighting up at middleweight proved to be a step too high, as most had predicted beforehand. Yet I find it incredible that, in time, some would actually dare to suggest that De La Hoya quit. This is such an affront and is ignorant of the facts regarding the fine effort he gave in the ring. Going into the ninth round, one judge had Oscar ahead and he certainly knew
himself that he was doing very well in the match. Why then would he throw it all away by taking a dive? He would not and did not. The very thought goes against all of his instincts as a fighter. The truth is, if any boxer whose optimum weight class is around 140 pounds, and has a frame thus suited, was hit with a perfectly placed shot such as the one Hopkins, a natural middleweight, delivered in this fight, he wouldn’t have been able to take its force. It’s that simple. To suggest any fakery on De La Hoya’s part is insulting and thoroughly untrue.
If it were true I don’t believe he would be making his return to the ring later this year. If he did quit and knows it all too well, then all desire and hunger to fight would have surely dissolved. This is clearly not the case. Oscar still has what it takes to attempt to become a world champion for a further occasion, as his challenge of the dangerous Ricardo Mayorga
proves.
As he has proven many times, fighting is most definitely in his heart, and in his blood. But most of all; Oscar would not and did not participate in a fixed fight!