By Aaron Klein: In watching Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) completely take apart his opponent Steve Forbes last Saturday night, I saw the blueprint that Oscar had crafted, with the help of Floyd Mayweather Sr – his trainer – to use to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their upcoming September 20th bout in Las Vegas. De La Hoya showed none of the mistakes that cost him in his last May in his split decision loss to Mayweather Jr. Showing an excellent jab, which Oscar kept in Forbes face for the entire fight, De La Hoya chose his moments wisely in which to go after Forbes with sharp attacks.
This strategy effectively conserved De La Hoya’s strength, allowing him to fight hard for the entire fight and keeping him from running out of gas like he often does when going the distance with opponents. De La Hoya didn’t let Forbes encourage him to brawl more than he wanted to, something that Oscar has had a problem with in his fights with opponents like Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas, both of whom could get De La Hoya to get out of his game plan quite easily just be landing a flurry of shots. Against Forbes, De La Hoya kept his cool, thinking about his game plan and not getting drawn into brawling until he was ready to. This is an important factor for De La Hoya, because it shows that at age 35, he’s still learning.