Saturday Saturday Saturday! In one of the most anticipated fights of the last few years, Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya vs. Floyd “Pretty Boy” Mayweather for the junior middleweight championship. I’m so excited! We’re actually having people over to my not-quite-finished-remodeling house.
The big questions: What kind of fight will we see? Who will win? What round? Decision or KO? I’ll wait and see what others have to say before weighing in myself. Ha.
Are the odds still 3-to-1 for Mayweather?
Have you seen the 24/7 show on HBO? Talk about unintentional comedy…
Vegas odds have dropped a little below 2-1 Mayweather due to heavy betting on the underdog, but Mayweather is still favored to win. I only caught one episode of the HBO show…suffice to say that Mayweather has a major gift for mouthing and clowning.
More clowning than mouthing. Mayweather is just making a ton of noise. Supposedly, De la Hoya is in this because Mayweather disrespects him so much.
Meh. De la Hoya shouldn’t be fighting this fight. He’s got nothing to gain. Oh sure, he’d have beaten the best pound-for-pound fighter, but he’s already past his prime.
Mayweather’s doing what he should be doing, though: going for the big match and getting the big payday.
Oh, this is a HUGE fight. Probably more interesting than anything since a big Tyson fight when he was still good.
I can’t make too strong of a case for DLH winning. The critical fights to look at are his two losses (both correctly scored) against Sugar Shane Mosley. I’d contend that Mayweather is currently quicker than Mosley was at that point, and that Oscar is probably a little slower.
Mosley’s quickness did give DLH some problems, but he had a little more power than does floyd, so perhaps DLH takes a few more chances.
Zab Judah fell apart against Mayweather, but he showed that you can stay with Floyd for a while. Hopefully DLH learned something from that fight. It’s great that he’s been training with Mosley.
DLH is a great fighter. He’s smart and slick, does everything well. I’m going to be elated if I see him trap Mayweather on the ropes and unleash one of his famous flurries to put FLoyd on the canvas, but I really don’t see it happening.
Floyd by unanimous decision.
(oh, and that show 24/7 has been good. Come on. . .50 Cent on a Segway? Cut to DLH watching baseball with his kid. Funny stuff.)
My .02…I know Floyd’s trash talking act is exactly that, an act to promote his fights, but he does it so incredibly well I would love to see DLH shut him the hell up. DLH has a few things going for him, power, experience, and an unlike most of Mayweather’s past opponents (e.g. Zab), the ability to do well in the later rounds. Mayweather is famous for having “brittle hands,” and if DLH makes him work harder in the early rounds than he wants to it could add up to an advantage later in the fight. In the Baldomir fight Mayweather hardly threw his right hand after the 5th round, and he actually took an 8 count in his fight against Carlos Hernandez because his hands hurt so badly. He prefers to hurt people early and coast for the rest of the fight, and DLH’s plan has to be to put the brakes on that. Also, Mayweather is moving up in weight class to fight, which could work against him.
That said, Mayweather is younger and faster, and it may just come down to that. I think DLH has a better chance than he’s currently given credit for, but if I had to put money on it I see it going to Mayweather by unanimous decision. I hope I’m wrong, though.
I agree completely. It is a day of destiny for both fighters. Mayweather can finally show that he is indeed one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in history. His legacy is at risk in this fight. IMO, Mayweather suffers from Lennox Lewis syndrome. He has out-classed his opponents by such a huge margin that it looks like he never fought anyone good. Zab Judah and Diego Corrales are not household names. De La Hoya will be the most recognizable name on his resume. If he loses, his legacy will be severely diminished.
For De La Hoya, this is last chance to prove that his name should be mentioned along with the best fighters of his generation. Early in his career, there was a large portion of the boxing world that believed that he would end his career as an all-time great. This won’t be the case, but this will be his last chance to partially redeem himself for his losses to Mosely, Hopkins and Trinidad.
Meh, I’ve been disappointed in just about every fight I’ve PPV’d of De La Hoya’s the last couple of years. When was the last time he actually showed up for a big one? Vargas? That was like 5 years ago. He’s too old timey now.
You didn’t like the Mayorga fight?
Oscar is bigger. When you jump weight sometimes the punches lose effect. But, I still figure that Floyd KOs Oscar.
I had a dream about this fight a few days ago. Mayweather won by a TKO in the 5th.
Not a chance.
First of all, the only guy that ever knocked out DLH was Hopkins – a TRUE middleweight fighting at 155. (one of my favorite knockouts ever – you could see Oscars brain disconnected from his body). Outside of that, I’m pretty sure DLH hasn’t been down since 1994. If it didn’t happen against a Mayorga, or a Vargas, or Sturm, or Trinidad, it’s not going to happen against Floyd.
Second of all, Floyd hasn’t KO’ed anyone who was that good. He gets easy decisions, but a KO artist, he’s not.
ESPECIALLY since he’s fighting a guy who is naturally bigger.
He’s going to be able to out box Oscar with his speed and movement, but no way on earth does he get a KO.
I’m thinking
DLH wins by KO: 15%
DLH wins by decision: 15%
Floyd wins by decision: 68%
Floyd wins by KO: 2%
It may be the last big fight for a long time. DLH is trying to break the corruption in the sport. Golden Boy productions has signed a bunch of excellent fighters to escape the King, Arum control. He is trying to save a corrupt sport. Hope it works.
I have to say that HBO is doing an amazing job in promoting this fight. The preview shows are captivating. The part that always gives me chills is watching both of these guys work the speed bags. Impressive displays all around.
agreed.
Sad to admit, it looks like I’m going to miss this. I have visitors from out of town, and not only are they not fight fans, but we’re probably going to the O’s game that night, so we’d miss the whole undercard, too – there’s always a good undercard for a fight this big.
We’ll see, though. I thought I was going to be able to say “ah, fuck it” but as fight day closes in, I’m really wanting to watch this fight more and more.
I can’t wait to see this. I actually like Mayweather, I respect good trash talk and it’s a great part of boxing.
I like De La Hoya, but I think Mayweather is the best pound-for-pound boxer around right now and I think he will beat De La Hoya in a unanimous decision. It’s my belief if DLH wins it will be by knockout, which is going to be very hard to do as he’ll have a hard time putting Floyd in a position where he can’t get said knockout.
Let’s see Mayweather vs. De La Hoya or Sowers vs. Cabrera. Not a tough choice IMHO. Actually, you should have plenty of time to make it to the sports bar for the main event.
Or…
Tell your friends that you’ll meet them at the game. Then don’t show up. Turn off your cell phone. In the morning, inform them that you were kidnapped by mobsters as a result of mistaken identity. Since they were nice enough to let you go, you’ve decided to not inform the police.
Family.
I’m kinda hoping for a rainout but that’s not going to happen.
Weigh in ,Oscar is 4 lbs heavier.
The Floyd and Gotti fight is on now. The speed difference was huge. Oscar stressed speed in training. I hope it worked.
After watching the 24/7 series on HBO. I am left with a lingering feeling, Floyd will wind up broke. He carries large amount of cash around and has thousands of dollars just laying around the house. Plus he gambles every day.I think we will read about him coming out of retirement in about 4 or 5 years.