Oscar De La Hoya defeated Steve Forbes by unanimous decision, ostensibly laying the groundwork for fighting, and beating Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September this year.
The De La Hoya vs Forbes Fight
Oscar De la Hoya defeated Steve "Two Pound" Forbes at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. The fight was a blowout on the judges cards with two scores of 119-109 and one with 120-108. Suite 101 scored the fight 119-109.
But scorecards can be deceiving.
"Steve Forbes wasn't 'Two Pound' Forbes tonight, he was '800 Pound' Forbes," said De La Hoya after the fight. "My jab was working all night and I was throwing combinations, but he (Forbes) is a strong fighter."
True enough. De La Hoya, true to his predictions, ended the fight much as he started it, with a solid left jab that consistently backed up Forbes, and flowing combinations that gave the judges no choice but to score rounds for boxing's greatest businessman. But, somewhere along the way, De La Hoya's left eye got bruised and swollen and his face and body reddened by Forbes' punches.
While De La Hoya was clearly stronger than Forbes, and De La Hoya who throw more it was the smaller Forbes who landed cleaner punches throughout the night. For that reason, using the Forbes fight as a benchmark for De La Hoya vs. Mayweather 2 could be a mistake.
True, De La Hoya didn't tire as he usually does, although he threw over 800 punches, which is, for him, a very high work rate. The problem with that statistic is that fatigue isn't a product of throwing punches--a reasonably well conditioned fighter can throw a couple thousand punches without tiring--it is stress that fatigues fighters. Because Forbes had only nine KOs in his 33 victories entering the fight, De La Hoya knew power wouldn't be his enemy. No power, no stress, no fatigue.
It is also noteworthy that Forbes, being much shorter than De La Hoya, couple with his lack of power, was a sitting duck for De La Hoya's jab and had to reach-- a dangerous thing for a fighter--in order to get inside.
The De La Hoya vs Mayweather Hype
But then, this fight, no, this event, wasn't about De La Hoya risking anything, it was an infomercial intended to whet the appetites of casual boxing fans, especially the Mexican ones, for the prospect of a return match with Mayweather.
Walking around The Home Depot Center, one couldn't escape the marketing assault put on by GoldenBoy Promotions, HBO Sports and Formula Public Relations: mariachis around every corner, a Cerveza Tecate VIP Center, carefully edited clips of DLH's finest moments in the ring flowed out of every monitor in the building, including the Diamond Vision screens inside the soccer stadium where the fight was held.
There was even the added, unplanned, but media-perfect drama of having brothers, Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Jeff Mayweather as competing trainers--Floyd Sr. in De La Hoya's corner and Jeff in Forbes'. A scene that will be repeated this September when the Roger Mayweather takes his usual place in Floyd Jr's corner.
In case the advertising fiesta of of this night has numbed fans to the whole truth, which is what it was designed to do, Steve Forbes isn't Floyd Mayweather Jr.
