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He
didn’t get the knockout, but he got the work.
In Oscar
de la Hoya’s quest to stay sharp for his September
rematch against boxing’s unbeaten, pound-for-pound king
Floyd Mayweather Jr., the “Golden Boy” mounted a
sustained attack filled with aggression and scoring left
hands to dominate Steve Forbes in front of a capacity
hometown crowd of 27,000 at the Home Depot Center’s
soccer stadium in Carson.
Judges
Max de Luca and Marty Sammon awarded de la Hoya a
one-sided 119-109 decision, and judge Marcos Rosales
gave de la Hoya all 12 rounds, 120-108.
“I’m a
little disappointed I didn’t stop him or knock him out,
but that didn’t happen; that’s the way he fights,” de la
Hoya said.
Former
world 130-lb champion Forbes (33-6) can still claim he
hasn’t been knocked down in his pro career. He took some
of de la Hoya’s best shots, and appeared hurt on a few
occasions, but he either found enough resilience to land
a punch that slowed the abuse or saw de la Hoya retreat
for a quick rest after barrages.
“I got
stunned a couple times, not to the point I was going
down,” Forbes said. “He can punch, man. What’s he got,
30 knockdowns? But I’m a crafty vet. I told myself I’ve
got to stay calm, and I was able to back him off me a
couple times.”
Forbes
has been tagged “Mayweather light,” for his years of
training under the guidance of Mayweather’s father,
Floyd Sr., and uncles, Roger and Jeff Mayweather.
From
that perspective, de la Hoya (39-5) rated the night a
success. He adhered to his trainer Mayweather Sr.’s plan
“to be more aggressive, fight straight up, stay on the
balls of my feet and use my jab.
“This is
the same style I’ll use to beat Mayweather.…This is the
plan to fight Mayweather.”
Punch
stats showed de la Hoya landed 101 more blows than
Forbes, and that he nearly doubled Forbes’s jabs total.
De la
Hoya most visibly hurt Forbes in the fourth, sixth,
seventh and ninth rounds. He unleashed a patented left
hook that struck Forbes’s head in the fourth, a stiff
left uppercut to cut Forbes under the right eye in the
sixth, two barrages in Forbes’s corner in the seventh
and a tiring barrage that left de la Hoya losing spit
through his mouthpiece in the ninth.
Near the
end of the 10th, a de la Hoya onslaught left Forbes’s
eyes puffy as he headed to the corner for rest.
“Steve
is no slouch,” Mayweather Sr. said. “I thought Oscar
would have more power. Now, I know what we’ll have to
work on, and we will.”
De la
Hoya, a former champion in six divisions, said Forbes,
known by the nickname “2 Pound” because of his birth
weight, fought as if he were “800-lb” Forbes.
But,
after receiving chiding from Mayweather Jr. for fading
in the late rounds of recent fights (de la Hoya lost a
split decision to Mayweather and surrendered his
super-welterweight belt because of one point on a
scorecard last May) de la Hoya didn’t relent late
Saturday.
“I feel
sharper,” said de la Hoya, who hurt his left hand and
said he will have it examined.
De la
Hoya showed some swelling under his left eye starting in
the second round and a trickle of blood on the bridge of
his nose in the third, but he immediately showed he’d
dictate the fight with his left hand, slinging scoring
left hooks and jabs that kept Forbes from continually
coming forward as he said he’d do.
He piled
up the rounds with more activity and barrages that hurt
Forbes. His defense was also far superior. De la Hoya
earned $2 million, and Forbes was paid $400,000,
according to California State Athletic Commission
executive officer Armando Garcia.
That he
couldn’t sustain the offensive damage to score a
knockout was a regret that he shared with the fans, who
booed late in the 12th round when they realized the
dramatic moment they had hoped for wasn’t coming.
“It felt
great to not go down,” said Forbes, whose wife was
spotted bowing her head and clutching her necklace in a
prayerful pose before the final round began. “I hope I
proved I’m at a top level of fighting.…Look for me
again.” |
