Last Saturday night at MGM Grand, when Oscar de la Hoya knocked-out Ricardo Mayorga early in the sixth round to win the WBC light-middleweight title, he reminded starving fans and pundits, too, what a champion looks like. He reminded us how titles find their way to elite fighters. He reminded us that a champion confers prestige on a belt much more than a belt makes a champion.
That may be easy to remember right now. But in the months that will march us toward September 16, the probable date of Oscar de la Hoya’s final prizefight, we’ll hear and read multiple attempts to diminish Oscar’s most recent achievement. Some experts will give us their own reminders: “Look, Mayorga lacked class, conditioning, true punching power, and a decent strategy.”
But there was one thing nobody accused Ricardo Mayorga of lacking: A chin.
Before Oscar was able to test Mayorga’s fabled chin, though, the fighters had to make their ring walks, and Michael Buffer had to introduce them. These introductions were noteworthy for two reasons. First, the sheer length of what titles Oscar de la Hoya had accumulated in his career took Mr. Buffer about a half-minute to read. And then came the contrast of Oscar’s headwear and Ricardo’s.
As the son of Mexican immigrants, and knowing that at least a quarter-million American voters would be watching, Oscar took the opportunity to support recent protestors and declare: “No HR-4437” – on a white headband. He didn’t dress his entourage in these headbands, and he didn’t make a cartoonish display of it. Instead, Oscar made a discreet political statement on behalf of Latinos. Meanwhile, Ricardo’s hat, robe, trunks, and hangers-on all shouted about a porn site featuring Latinas. Well.
The fighters did not touch gloves, the first bell did ring, and the match began. Oscar did not rise on his toes or dance. He stood at center ring, jabbed cautiously, and waited for Mayorga’s first attack. Each time Mayorga came forward, Oscar stood ready to trade with him. Then after a minute and a half elapsed, everything changed.
Ricardo Mayorga lunged forward at Oscar, arms flailing. Oscar banged Mayorga with a straight right. Mayorga started another punch. And Oscar snapped a left hook off the side of Mayorga’s jaw. Mayorga’s body continued rightward, even while his head flew leftward. By the time his body caught up with his head, Ricardo Mayorga was on the blue mat.
This was not supposed to happen. Of all the predictions aficionados made (and our own Teddy Molina came closest of all), nobody guessed “Oscar KO-1.” In fact, if an early knockout were to happen, most agreed, Ricardo Mayorga would be the victor. And yet, in a flash, Oscar stood over Mayorga. Indeed, as Oscar would later say, the message was: “I’m gonna stand up to the bully.”
Just how great was that left hook by Oscar de la Hoya? Well, early estimates are placing the bid somewhere above $25,000,000.00. But more about that in a bit.
Because of his strength and durability, Ricardo Mayorga was able to make it to the end of Round 1. In his corner, Oscar de la Hoya then got a verbal spanking from his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr., who insisted Oscar should have jabbed more. In the next round, Oscar still didn’t jab more. But he did land a series of fantastic right hands.
Round 3 began in earnest with a fierce left uppercut by De la Hoya. But then Ricardo Mayorga responded with a pair of right uppercuts that were his best punches of the fight. Finally, though, Mayorga’s uppercuts only served to remind fans what a fantastic chin Oscar has always had.
The next two stanzas saw Oscar continue to stand at center ring with Mayorga, whose punches got wider and looser. By the middle of the fifth round, Mayorga’s roundhouse rights were so telegraphed Oscar began to catch them with his left guard fully extended. Then, Mayorga had lost even his puncher’s chance.
Round 6 began, and Oscar de la Hoya stopped out-thinking and out-boxing his opponent. He came off his stool and simply out-slugged his opponent. He landed another ferocious barrage on Mayorga’s chin, shoulders, and temples. Mayorga retreated and kneeled along the ropes – in the same pose he’d struck before Felix Trinidad. Referee Jay Nady gave a ten count. And then Oscar de la Hoya pounded Ricardo Mayorga with thirty-one uncontested punches. Referee Nady pulled Oscar away and stopped the fight.
Before his post fight interview, then, Oscar visited Mayorga’s corner and accepted Mayorga’s apology for “El Matador’s” tasteless antics during their promotion. Not since Lennox Lewis whupped Mike Tyson was a bad man beaten into such a show of goodness.
Oscar said as much to HBO’s Larry Merchant. He also said that his remarkable first-round left hand took exactly its desired effect on Mayorga: “He [Mayorga] sensed that this is serious business.” But when he was asked to discuss future business, Oscar became hesitant. He deftly moved away from Merchant’s suggestion that Oscar fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. – the son of Oscar’s trainer, and the top-rated fighter in the world.
But Oscar’s reluctance to come between father and son doubtfully marked anything more than the start of Golden Boy Promotions’ next promotion: Oscar de la Hoya versus Floyd Mayweather Jr., in Las Vegas, on Mexican Independence Day.
And that’s brings us back to the value of Oscar’s left hook in Round 1. The moment that Oscar felled Ricardo Mayorga in a fraction of the time it took Felix Trinidad to accomplish the same goal, Oscar de la Hoya assured the world that he still has power enough to drop any fighter under 160 pounds – including Mayweather. The drama of an Oscar-Floyd fight was already assured by the fighters’ pedigree and caliber. But Oscar’s left hook added the sort of suspense that attracts those elusive crossover pay-per-viewers.
Let’s start the purse bid at $25,000,000.00, and hope this fight happens.