Trinidad vs. De La Hoya brings shades of Pacquiao vs. Mayweather

By Boxing News - 01/31/2015 - Comments

floyd818181By Sizzle JKD: As I wait anxiously in anticipation of the “Super Bowl of Boxing” between undefeated WBC/WBA/The Ring welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. and WBO welterweight king Manny Pacquiao, I can’t help but remember 1999’s “The Fight of the Millennium” between Hall of Famers Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya.

Drawing comparisons to Trinidad-De La Hoya while hoping this year’s clash between boxing’s top two pound-for-pound pugilists won’t end in the same disappointing fashion as the 1999 mega fight, one can only wonder if Pacquiao-Mayweather will live up to the hype and perform much better than its predecessor.

One thing we know is most likely to happen is that Pacquiao-Mayweather will smash every record you can think of. Estimates are that the May 2nd blockbuster will generate at least 3 million PPV buys and somewhere in between $250-300 million in total revenue.

While Trinidad-De La Hoya’s 1.4 million PPV buys pale in comparison, it was a record at that time; no other non-heavyweight bout had ever generated that many buys. Trinidad-De La Hoya was unprecedented, and it paved the way for boxing as it entered the new millennium.

Pacquiao vs. Mayweather is this generation’s Trinidad-De La Hoya just as Trinidad vs. De La Hoya was that generation’s Hagler vs. Leonard. Each fight brought tons of hype and promotion, each fight was the fight the whole world wanted to see, and each fight had the division’s consensus #1 and #1A fighter. The only difference between Trinidad vs. De La Hoya and Hagler vs. Leonard is that the latter can be watched over and over again on YouTube while the former isn’t that appealing considering how the fight manifested itself considering all the expectations. Nonetheless, both bouts were highly controversial and many people to this day are divided in who they think is the true winner of those fights.

For the record, I still believe to this day that Hagler defeated Leonard and De La Hoya was victorious over Trinidad by half-a-round.

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As Pacquiao-Mayweather approaches, we can only hope that it lives up to expectations and we get to see a classic. If we are going to fork out $90-100 to watch these two pugilists put out their best, then we better see their best. However, we may end up with something eerily similar to what we saw in Trinidad-De La Hoya.

The lasting legacy of Trinidad’s majority decision win over De La Hoya was not that it was Tito’s signature win or Oscar’s worst loss but rather it was arguably the most disappointing superfight in the history of boxing.

It is up to heavy debate as to who you really think won the fight, but what we cannot debate is that the action was downright dreadful to the point of incessant boredom, relative to what fans were expecting. What the whole world witnessed was at times awful, considering Trinidad was a knock-out slugger who was the undefeated IBF welterweight champ and best pure puncher in the sport and De La Hoya was a master boxer who had one of the best jabs in the game and was also the undefeated Lineal, WBC welterweight champ. For all intents and purposes, this fight was THE legitimate unification bout to watch, between the sport’s two biggest stars, during a time when Mike Tyson’s relevance had already begun its descent.

Similarly, today’s spectacle between Mayweather and Pacquiao sings a comparable tune – Floyd, the highly skilled boxing technician and best defensive fighter in the game today against Manny, the ultra-quick power puncher whose uncanny ability to throw punches in bunches has made him the best offensive fighter of his era. One is an undefeated champion, the other is the Fighter of the Decade. Both will be first ballot Hall of Famers someday.

Unlike Trinidad-De La Hoya, this 2015 version has been over-marinating since the dawn of humanity. But like Trinidad-De La Hoya, Pacquiao vs Mayweather is an absolute can’t-miss that the viewing public has been demanding for years.

The only difference is that Mayweather and Pacquiao, some would say, are past their primes while Trinidad and De La Hoya were both in the heart of their primes when they faced each other in 1999. De La Hoya was a rising star that showed he was ready to carry the PPV torch, Trinidad was a cultural icon in his native Puerto Rico and fast becoming a star in his own right in the United States because of his exciting action-packed fights.

Although Floyd will be 38 and Manny will be 36 by the time they fight, it still may be a very exciting battle because both fighters have managed to maintain most of the skills that made them great – their speed, reflexes, movement, and ring intelligence are still considered to be at elite level. Some would say both fighters have even evolved to become better boxers, able to make adjustments on the fly to their opponent’s style in order to control the ring.

But let’s keep our fingers crossed because what we don’t want to see is a boring match. Many think Floyd will run the entire fight and pot shot his way to victory while barely engaging himself in any type of action. Most believe Pacquiao will simply charge forward and attack with reckless abandon and immerse himself in combinations while punching himself out in the process as Floyd figures him out by round 6.

I, however, believe it will be a chess match deluxe, with both fighters attempting to outsmart each other throughout the fight while carefully picking their spots and cautiously gauging one another and choosing the most opportune time to throw flurries. Floyd will shock the world, engage with Pacquiao, and go toe-to-toe when the situation calls for it. Pacquiao, meanwhile, will box like he never has before, showing fans that he, too, can do what Mayweather is known to do best. This I’m certain of. Both fighters are simply way too good, too well prepared, and train to hard not to strut their best stuff on May 2nd.

The record book simply shows that Tito Trinidad won and that Oscar De La Hoya lost, but it was the fans who were the real losers in 1999. For the first eight rounds, Oscar battered and bruised Trinidad with jabs, movement, left and right hooks, and more jabs. Trinidad, as game as he was, didn’t seem like he had any answer for Oscar’s ability to control the ring and the pace of the fight. I’ve never seen Oscar as comfortable in the pocket as he was against Trinidad. Conversely, I had never seen Tito as uncomfortable in a fight as he was against De La Hoya.
By the end of the eighth round, many observers had Oscar up five rounds to three. This was when the improbable happened.

Oscar’s corner told him to simply box the last four rounds. His corner advised him that he was winning the fight by a large margin and all he had to do was control the fight by boxing.

Why Oscar ran the last three to four rounds is beyond me. This eventually cost him the fight.

Of course, the Nevada judges awarded the victory to the aggressor. For the last four rounds, it was Trinidad who was landing the most telling power punches as he continued to come forward like a bull with no regard for human life. Oscar ran and ran so much he made Forrest Gump look like a turtle. Even though Trinidad was exposed as a one-dimensional slugger, he continued with his game plan and plowed forward while Oscar digressed and abandoned his. At the time, it was the biggest mystery in boxing history.

The De La Hoya of the first eight rounds disappeared as he was no longer light on his toes, no longer moving and throwing pot shots, no longer cutting off the ring and stopping and popping the stiff jabs that bloodied Trinidad’s nose. What seemed to handcuff Trinidad the entire fight all of a sudden changed course, and the result was one of the most surprising turnarounds the sport had ever witnessed.

Maybe Oscar was a little too overconfident that the judges would give him the win. After all, it was the Golden Boy who was more popular. Perhaps Oscar thought that his “street cred’ would play a huge role if it came down to a decision. History, however, has shown that for the most part judges have a tendency to favor the aggressor in a fight.

Nevertheless, the prevailing argument when looking back at the Trinidad-De La Hoya fight is that it’s much more difficult to give Trinidad seven rounds than it was for De La Hoya. Furthermore, Compubox numbers even support De La Hoya as the winner, as Oscar landed more power punches (124 to 120) and total punches (263 to 166) and had a slightly better connect rate.

What will we see in the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight? Will we see a repeat of Trinidad-De La Hoya and witness another highly controversial decision? Will Floyd be ahead comfortably after 8-9 rounds and run for his dear life in the championship rounds as Manny increases his pressure and work rate? Will Floyd take Manny out of his comfort zone by using his 5-inch reach advantage while controlling distance and range by sitting in the pocket and tagging Manny with counterpunch after counterpunch? Most importantly, will the fans get their money’s worth after waiting so many years for this fight to finally materialize?

As the final verdict and winner was being announced in 1999, I was elated to see Trinidad’s hand being raised after 12 rounds because Oscar didn’t finish the fight with the heart of a warrior we were so accustomed to seeing from him. But I also felt shortchanged at the same time, and I was even blaming Don King for fixing the fight and paying off the judges. Boxing won at the box office, but at the end of the day the fans became the real losers because of the way it went down. Not to mention, there was never a rematch between De La Hoya and Trinidad in order to prove once and for all who the true winner was. For myself, it was another low point in boxing.

Here’s hoping that Mayweather vs. Pacquiao doesn’t suffer the same fate.



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