HBO & De La Hoya Throw Boxing Fans A Bone
This coming Saturday night former six division title-holder Oscar De La Hoya (38-5) will once again be fighting as a welterweight. In a fight that amounts to nothing more than a "see I can win a fight" exhibition, Oscar will face former Super-featherweight champ, Steve Forbes (33-5). Forbes, has been at his best fighting at 130. In his last meaningful fight he lost a unanimous decision to Demetrius Hopkins for the USBA Junior welterweight title. So I don't expect to see Steve at his best fighting at 147.
This fight serves both De La Hoya and Forbes great financially, although much more so for Oscar obviously. The purpose of the fight is HBO's way of throwing boxing fans a bone by showing De La Hoya for free, and to provide him a chance to win in an impressive fashion. In other words the De La Hoya-Forbes bout marks the official beginning of the selling of De La Hoya-Mayweather II. Forbes is there to provide Oscar a foil with a name and garner his biggest payday for getting stopped for the first time in his career. Not that stopping Forbes should be considered a Herculean task by De La Hoya, being that he's naturally bigger and stronger than Forbes.
The minute De La Hoya has his hands raised after defeating Forbes, and he will, we'll begin hearing why he has a more realistic chance to beat Mayweather this coming September. First we'll here how the fight with Forbes was perfect to help ready him for Floyd Mayweather, which sounds plausible, despite Mayweather and Forbes having nothing in common other than being professional fighters. Then Oscar will talk about how he fought Mayweather wrong the first time and knows what he has to do this time. It will be said how the first fight was only a split decision loss for him and by just a few adjustments in the corner this time will be the difference and why he'll win. Shortly after De La Hoya is finished talking to either Larry Merchant or Max Kellerman, Steve Forbes will be yesterdays news. So I hope that he's making a ton of money, and I don't think it'll be a bad thing if for some un-forseen reason the talk is about Forbes next fight, and De La Hoya being yesterdays news.
Labels: Frank Lotierzo, HBO, Oscar De La Hoya, Steve Forbes
posted by Frank Lotierzo @ 12:38 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I don't care whether Steve Forbes makes a ton of money on Saturday unless it's for throwing the fight convincingly. Since the main pitch for this event seems to be the chance to see a Mayweather in each corner, HBO's suggestion is that there's no real fight to watch. As Frank points out, the sole reason this thing is taking place is to set the table for Mayweather-De La Hoya 2. You'd think nobody could possibly fall for that hyped up piece of junk again. Then again, we're the country that voted Bush into office twice; our gullibility seems limitless.
Is this fight also a test to see if Oscar can still make 147 and be somewhat effective?
If so then I would assume the second Mayweather bout will take place there rather than another at catch.
Iain, I can see the 147 question cutting either way. On one hand, the thing Oscar should least want is to meet Floyd closer to Mayweather's natural weight. The only legitimate advantage De La Hoya holds over Mayweather is in size.
But since Cotto-Margarito will have been settled by the time Mayweather-De La Hoya 2 takes place, there may be some value in having the welterweight title on the line. The winner could then unify with (for marketing purposes, hopefully) Cotto. Maybe having all the belts up for grabs would add a little extra currency to the event.
De La Hoya-Forbes is at a catch weight of 150. This makes it even more absurd, in that Stevie Forbes is a 140-pound fighter, and who had most success at 130.
Forbes was, by most accounts, robbed against Demetrius Hopkins, so what do you think happens against Oscar? If this fight is anything but a blowout for Forbes (think Corrie Sanders-Wladimir Klitschko), Oscar wins. Then HBO has another soap opera featuring the Mayweathers, carefully editing it so that anything negative they say about each other is highlighted.
I’ll watch this fight, but if you have to choose one show Saturday night, watch the Vazquez-Marquez Trilogy show on Showtime.
The only way this soap opera can work out well is this:
Oscar beats Forbes (which is pretty much a given).
Cotto beats Margarito in July, when they will likely fight.
Floyd beats Oscar again in September, probably by decision.
Oscar’s farewell is in December against Cotto, and Cotto wins, probably by stoppage.
Cotto is named 2008 Fighter of the Year (which at this point should go to Israel Vazquez).
All this sets the stage for a welterweight unification megamatch in 2009 between 2007 Fighter of the Year Floyd and 2008 Fighter of the Year Cotto, which is what we should have had in the first place.
I don’t know if this is their working plan, but it should be.
Post a Comment
<< Home