27,000+ Oscar De La
Hoya fans packed Los Angeles' Home Depot Center
Saturday night to witness their hero decisively beat a
terribly overmatched, smaller foe named Steve "2
Pound" Forbes in a 150 pound contest. Not a particularly
intimidating name for De La Hoya's hand-picked opponent,
but then again, neither is the notion of facing Forbes'
limited punching power, exactly what De La Hoya intended.
For the man who is repeatedly referred to by boxing journalists
as the most popular boxer on the planet, last night was
tune-up time all the time and the first of three planned
fights that The Golden Boy claims will close out his career.
But really, who cares? If fighting smaller men who are
well below your level or conversely, smaller men who should
be fighting better people than you in their own weight
class is what a retirement farewell tour means for De
La Hoya, then the fans are the ones being had.
In the ring Forbes kept
most of the rounds somewhat close with his bobbing, weaving,
and ducking, and De La Hoya did his best to swing for
the fences and occassionally bring his fans to their feet
with blood thirsty combinations. No matter, with Forbes
neglecting to throw back and always standing in front
of De La Hoya the night became exactly the showcase Oscar
had planned, minus the knockout.
Indeed, Forbes was the
miniature Floyd Mayweather, Jr, De La Hoya's next scheduled
opponent, minus the speed, superior skills, and punching
power that De La Hoya was looking for. In that sense,
everything last night was hunky dory... for Oscar.
But this is HBO, dammit, and I pay a lot of money every
month to see World Championship Boxing, which
I always thought meant top tier and up-and-coming boxers
duking it out, not reality series also-rans like Forbes
and last week's Alfonso Gomez. These are mis-matches,
plain and simple, and even if a skilled sparring partner
like Forbes can avoid being knocked out by a superior
fighter in De La Hoya he still lost every round.
And that's not competitive. Gomez, however, with
far fewer skills, was not so lucky and was literally mugged
by Miguel Cotto last week in a truly hideous scenario.
So not only are De La Hoya/Forbes and Cotto/Gomez terrible
match-ups, but they are dangerous fights for the outmatched
boxers and ones that truly give boxing a bad name.
I say let these second
and third tier guys fight on ESPN Friday Night Fights
where they belong. There's no shame in their program,
I love it, and both fighters and fans will be treated
to far better match-ups. And while those guys fight on
free television, HBO could give us the top guys we pay
for them to showcase, that is, if they weren't intent
on putting their biggest fights on Pay-Per-View instead,
perhaps the sport's biggest travesty.
Come on, HBO, we already
pay for your "premium" service every month.
Hitting us up for an additional fifty bucks a pop for
your best matches is just plain ludicrous. This is nothing
more than hideous gluttony and greed, HBO. You're just
lucky Showtime doesn't quite have the bucks to compete
with you because if they did, I know who'd be getting
my money and surely the money of other fight fans as well.
And speaking of money,
De La Hoya/Mayweather 2 is coming this September... on
HBO Pay-Per-View. Whoopdie fucking doo.
De La Hoya moves
to 39-5 (30 KO)
Forbes falls to
33-6 (9 KO)
Here is the official
scoring of the fight:
120-108, 119-109,
119-109 (De La Hoya by unanimous decision)
My Scoring of the
Fight:
| Round |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
Total |
| De La Hoya |
10 |
10 |
10 |
9 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
119 |
| Forbes |
9 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
109 |
Quote of the night
by Oscar De La Hoya:
"Yes."
- When asked by interviewer Larry Merchant if being a
billionaire is one of his dreams. For the record,
he is already filthy rich. |
