Mayweather pitched a shut-out against Baldimir last Saturday. Mayweather made him look like a no-hitter and even beat him handily the whole second half of the fight using only his left hand. 

What did I notice the whole fight? What did I see in Mayweather to pit him against De La Hoya? What do I see in De La Hoya that could help him against Mayweather?

For now, I see the fight being decided on Mayweather's right hand VERSUS De La Hoya's age.  

Mayweather has blinding speed, excellent defensive skills (he's almost invincible when he shoulder rolls), quick stinging punches, a solid chin, excellent boxing skills, and he's in shape. His advantages against De La Hoya would be hand speed, reflexes, endurance, and maybe skills.

De La Hoya has quick hand speed, rapid combos, deceptively calm yet skillful boxing brilliance, an iron chin, size advantage, and a bigger punch than Floyd Mayweather.

Lets bring in some comparisons:

Floyd tends to potshot from time to time, he loves to fight one punch at a time and then slips and ducks away. He also tends to do this against bigger opponents or guys that hit harder than he does. He loves winning fights  one clean punch at a time and demonstrating his great skill and speed with each punch. But if that one punch isn't enough to hurt Oscar and Floyd isn't strong enough to trade, he will be in big trouble if Oscar chases him into a gunfight.  

De La Hoya has a great keep away jab. Floyd Mayweather doesn't use  his jab so much because all his power punches are fast enough to lead offense. Oscar beat the ultra-fast Sugar Shane Mosley in the 2nd fight with the jab all night long. (YES, OSCAR DE LA HOYA WON THAT FIGHT BUT THE JUDGES WEREN'T PAYING ATTENTION!)  You can think of Mosley as a bigger Floyd Mayweather but with fast hands, fast combinations, and a little less defensive. De La Hoya also carries a lethal left hook. You can pit that against Floyd's right-hand leads. Unlike Floyd's stinging shots, De La Hoya has BANGING punches. De La Hoya is also BIGGER than Floyd Mayweather. He is 2 inches taller and has a 1-inch reach advantage. De La Hoya is probably best suited at 147 and Mayweather best suited at 140. 

Floyd is definitely hittable. Anybody with fast hands, good skills OR constant pressure can catch him. Maybe not as much as you think, but he's definitely hittable. Judah stunned Floyd early on and carried a nice lead in the early rounds of their fight. Jose Luis Castillo didn't have any problems finding Floyd in their first fight and DeMarcus Corley was able to hurt Floyd momentarily. Oscar De La Hoya has excellent boxing skills, quick hands, and hits hard enough to hurt Mayweather. Is this the difference? 

We all know Floyd will be able to catch Oscar, but we also know he won't be able to hit hard enough to seriously hurt him. Will one shot at a time be enough to beat Oscar? With Mayweather's power disadvantage, I don't think so. Will Mayweather be able to land combos at will on De La Hoya? I don't think so. In fact, I remember Baldimir even being able to duck out of the way of Mayweather's combos here and there. Floyd's right hand has also betrayed him multiple times in the past. We also know that Oscar has more than enough punching power to hurt Mayweather.

So the question is.......... will Oscar De La Hoya be able to hit Mayweather?     Will his speed and reflexes still be there? Will he be too slow at this age? Will Mayweather's right hand and size make him unable to take De La Hoya's punches?  

Here is the trick question: Will having Floyd Mayweather Sr. in Oscar De La Hoya's corner affect the outcome of the fight? This one is a little weird. You'd think that it helps De La Hoya but does it really? Can Mayweather Sr. really tell De La Hoya how to beat up his son? Was Mayweather Sr. ever even as good as his son? His career record was 30-8 and he had been knocked out only once by Sugar Ray Leonard. Mayweather Sr. said he invented the Mayweather fighting style and that he knows how to break it. Interesting, keep this in mind.

This fight is going to a decision. De La Hoya has not had a real busy competitive fight since Felix Sturm in 2004, nearly 3 years from his fight with Mayweather next May. I want De La Hoya to win only because he's "proven". Then again, I haven't seen De La Hoya win with combinations for a while. His fight with Mayorga showed him winging punches with his feet a little unstable. If De La Hoya can sit down on his punches and really spin out some quick hard combos, I have him winning easily. If not, I'm going to pick him to win by 2 points. Floyd's right hand, size disadvantage, and inability to hurt De La Hoya will make things difficult. Floyd isn't strong enough to stand and trade with De La Hoya which means he can't throw combos. Without combos, it would be hard for Floyd to potshot all night long picking single shots at a time without eating multiple shots from De La Hoya.

Comments (1)