Is De La Hoya a Quitter?
December 9th, 2008
By Michael Lieberman: The sight of seeing Oscar De La Hoya quit on his stool after the 8th round was frankly sickening for me to see. A once great fighter reduced to quitting on his stool against a fighter six inches shorter than him and not nearly in his class as far as boxing skills go. If De La Hoya was a true warrior, he would have gone out on his shield, throwing punches until the end instead of just quitting like that. That probably didn’t win him many fans.
It’s his own fault he lost the fight. I mean, he wasn’t doing half bad in the bout until the 7th round when he suddenly decided to act like a sparring partner and retreat to the ropes. Once he was on the ropes, Manny Pacquiao had easy and abused him badly with a massive amount of punches.
I have no idea what De La Hoya was thinking when he made that bone-headed move, but whatever he was thinking, it sure didn’t work for. By the time the round ended, De La Hoya’s face had swelled up to grotesque proportions, with his left eye almost closed. He still had a chance to win and fought well at times in the 8th round.
The quitting part, I just don’t understand. There’s no way I would have quit on the stool if it had been me. If my trainer had said something like that to me, I would have cursed him and pushed him away and fought the remainder of the fight without and trainer.
De La Hoya should have manned up and went out for the 9th and given it his all to try and knock Pacquiao out with something big. Whether he ended up getting knocked out or not by Pacquiao, doesn’t matter. What matters is that De La Hoya fought until his breath.
After all, he was paid well enough to take a beating, so he at least should have given the fan’s their money’s worth. These people came a long way to see the fight, paid a lot of money and expected to see De La Hoya to fight as hard as he could and for as long as he could, not to see him quit when the going got tough.
When things weren’t turning out good for him, De La Hoya should have used a plan B or plan C to deal with Pacquiao’s better speed and movement. Quitting was not an option. By quitting, De La Hoya only reinforced the opinion of many boxing fans that see him as being a pampered, weak fighter who never deserved the attention that he got.
The great fighters in the past rarely quit, and when things were tough for them, they would dig deep and fight through it. De La Hoya should have gone down swinging and been stopped on the canvas rather than on his stool. At least by doing that there would be some pride involved, knowing that he had given his best and was knocked too many times and was stopped by the referee rather than himself.
Tags: 14 Responses to “Is De La Hoya a Quitter?”
Leave a Reply
please use above banner to link back to us!
Spot on Alex.
Any ‘fans’ who think they’re entitled to see a boxer keep going until he’s literally KO’d need to wise up and stop being so bloody selfish.
A fighter is there to win. Entertainment comes second to that, and also second to getting an unnecessary beating.
and..he’s a filipino and filipino’s fight until the last drop of their blood.he has a heart of a true and fearless warrior. does size matter now?
And what if he got batterd so bad that he got permamently injured?…would all you people saying he’s a quitter be shouting his corner should of taken him out earlier? or the ref should of stopped it? of course you would.
Now oscar has given boxing fans untold amount of entertainment over the years and is a true warrior. if the fella had nothing left to give?….he’s earned that right to stop that fight.
oscers a grate fighter but pacman is no mug
“clearly not in his class as far as skills go…”
Uh, really? Maybe Oscar is the more classically styled boxer – but his skillset, overall is inferior to Paqciao’s if we’re going to judge it on the success of their careers. Before this Manny went 5-1-1 in seven bouts against a great Mexican trio – what did Oscar do in his biggest fights? Lose, generally, unless they were well past their best (Chavez, Whittaker – and that was controversial).
You could argue he lost the 5 biggest fights of his career – Mosley twice, Trinidad, Hopkins, Mayweather, now add this one too… let’s face it, he was a very, very good fighter, and he has heart. He always fought the best. But his career hasn’t been all that golden since him and Tinidad stunk the joint out. If Manny retired tomorrow his fighting CV would be much more impressive than Oscar’s. I always felt like Oscar just thought too much in there. He never really let his hands go enough in any of his big fights. Maybe it’s from having so many trainers that he never truly gelled with one style.
And as for his quitting? I have no problem with that. “he wasn’t doing half bad in the bout until the 7th round” – well, if you think losing every single round to there is not doing half bad then I guess you have a point… Why continue a pointless beating when you have nothing left? Should Ali have been left in against Holmes? Of course not – Oscar was empty. This aged, weight-drained version of a once fine fighter was being outboxed and outslugged. I don’t think I’d feel I got more “value for money” by seeing him lose even more brain cells in there.
David Diaz didn’t quit till the end.. And that makes him a true fighter and got a lot of respect.. He fought till he was KO..
Good 2 see its not a british fighter michael “bullsh*t” lieberman is slagging off 4 once.Keep it up mick no article on brits.
The fact that DLH couldnt throw any punches or any decent punches means the decision to end the fight was correct. It would have been foolish for him to go out for another round as he wouldnt be able to catch Pacquiao. He made the correct decision in my eyes.
Justin – HA HA HA I am actually laughing out loud!!! Are you really calling yourself a warrior because you have had the odd 3 round amateur fight??? Comparing yourself to Miguel Cotto????? Thats is brilliant – you fool!!
i see with dhl when thangs get bad they get bad.if i can remember some time ago he said he will rather die in that ring than quit.these are the words he has been saying for years.i don`t remember any fighter quitting on him.if they quit it was on there backs not there stoll.i am sorry great fighters don`t go out like that.
Wrong game plan, over confident and above all BAD TRAINER. If you watched the hbo 24/7 then you know what i mean. No offnse but its shows the result. If Mayweather Sr handles DHL its a different story.
I agree with author that it is sickening to see De La Hoya quit. Whether or not you (Justin) have fought amateur or not matters little. The difference is that no one cares if an amateur quits, no one paid hundreds of dollars to see you fight and you didn’t make millions from those fights. I will always respect Oscar for the many beautiful fights that he has given us, but he has nothing left and should just promote instead of giving us these lame ass fights so he can collect more money. Quitting because you can’t see yourself winning should not be an option for a professional fighter. After all, not quiting is one of the quint-essential characteristics of a great fighter. Oscar may have earned that title long ago, but has officially lost it.
i do not know if you have ever fought, amateur or pro. i fought amateur in the early 1970′s. even when you win, you lose. oscar is not a great fighter, he is a good fighter. leonard, hagler, hearns, duran, ali, those are great fighters. maybe you do not know what it is like to be beaten up. my fights were only 3 rounds. long enough, felt like 15 some of them. i never quit, but i entertained the idea many times. cotto did the same thing. you have to know what hurt and pain is to understand what they did. only way. this thing of you saying part of being a man is to take you beating, that is nonsense. look at what it will get you eventually. i would have to say you have never been in a really bad fight. i am 56 and still remember some of mine. do not be quick to judge. i am not an oscar fan, but it is easy for a non warrior to cut him down.
Maybe you should be fighting Pacquiao next?