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May 1999
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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YOU WANT MORE?
It's tough at the top. Having won the hardest fight of his career, De La Hoya still has critics to calm. Bad news for Oba Carr? Special preview by GRAHAM HOUSTON |
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JOY: De La Hoya celebrates beating Quartey, but that was yesterday
- Get Big Pic Some critics thought he could have been much more aggressive in his last fight, but
Oscar De La Hoya must be wondering what he has to do. He got off the floor to beat Ike
Quartey - by universal consent the most dangerous opponent he has faced - and almost
knocked out the African in the last round. All De La Hoya can do is shrug his muscular shoulders in the face of what must seem to
him unkind and even unfair reaction - in some quarters anyway - to his performances, and
simply keep doing what he has done since turning professional, which is to defeat everyone
put in front of him. There will always be doubters, and he knows this. There are also a
growing number of believers - and the fascination the Golden Boy holds for a large section
of the American public remains undiminished. This is shown by the interest in his next fight, when a packed, near-12,000 crowd is
expected at the new Mandalay Bay casino hotel, Las Vegas on 22 May when De La Hoya defends
his World Boxing Council welterweight title against Oba Carr, the capable veteran from
Detroit who will be making his third championship bid. The fight is backed up by the super featherweight title bout between undefeated Floyd
Mayweather Jr and seasoned Goyo Vargas as part of a Home Box Office TV double-header, but
De La Hoya is the on-site magnet. De La Hoya will be making his seventh defence of the welterweight title that he won
from Pernell Whitaker two years ago. Yes, challengers such as the veterans Julio Cesar
Chavez and Hector Camacho, Kenyan David Kamau and Puerto Rican Wilfredo Rivera were
obviously outgunned, as was Frenchman Patrick Charpentier, who should not have been there
even though he was the WBC's mandatory challenger. But De La Hoya always maintained
that the toughest fighters in the division would eventually get their chance. He proved
this when he took on the formidable Quartey, and be assured that De La Hoya wants to meet
Felix Trinidad, the unbeaten International Boxing Federation champion. And he is willing
to give Quartey a rematch in September if the Trinidad fight cannot be arranged for that
month. In the meantime, De La Hoya faces a good test in Carr, who turns 28 just 11 days before
the fight and brings a record of 48 wins, two losses and a draw, with 28 opponents halted. Carr's only losses were to Trinidad and Quartey. He had each champion down, while
one judge sco red his fight with Quartey a draw. So Carr clearly is not a pushover, even
though De La Hoya is an 8-1 on betting favourite. Yet Carr is facing a fighter who seems to have been computer programmed as a winning
machine. There are those who feel that De La Hoya, who turned 26 in February, is
mechanical, that he has not progressed technically and is, in fact, beatable. But the
fighters who have been inside the ropes with him know the reality, which is that De La
Hoya is a calculating puncher who has excellent command of the ring, hurts when he hits
and possesses a vicious streak in contrast to his almost angelic good looks. And De La
Hoya has shown heart, the ability to rally dramatically after he himself has encountered
adversity. De La Hoya's 30 consecutive victories - 24 of them inside the distance - have seen
him win five titles in four weight divisions from 9st 4lbs (130lbs) to 10st 7lbs (147lbs).
And, say what you like about the odds always being in his favour, he has beaten 10 boxers
who held major world titles (that is to say, WBC, IBF and World Boxing Association). Carr talks a very good fight (as you will read in the interview in this issue) but, as
the fight progresses, the challenger, like so many fighters who came before him, may well
find that sharing the ring with De La Hoya is not a place he really wants to be. De La Hoya's trainer, Robert Alcazar, said from the fighter's mountain
training camp at Big Bear, California: "I think it's a good fight. Oba Carr is
still a dangerous opponent, although I believe his best days are over. "What happened against Quartey was we made a game plan thinking Quartey is going
to attack Oscar, and what happens is Quartey decides to sit back - he didn't come
straight to Oscar and he had more skills than we thought. After two, three rounds it
turned into a strategy fight, too much caution and respect from both sides. But, again, De
Le Hoya closed with those big rounds, 10, 11 and 12. "I think Oba Carr is a lighter puncher but is a fighter with more speed and with
more angles [than Quartey] - a good technician. "The worst thing Oscar can do is stay in front of the guy and wait for him like he
did with Quartey. He must make more waist movements, more lateral movement and get some
rhythm going - not bounce up and down. Put pressure on him right away. That's what
we're working on. I don't want to see him sitting in front of no opponent from
now on. "Oba Carr is busy with both hands, but no straight punches - he comes with the
hook. That will make it easy for Oscar to connect with his straight right hands or
uppercuts, because basically Carr comes way from outside - wide - with those left hooks. "I think Oscar possesses one of the best jabs in boxing - he proved it one more
time with Quartey - he took his jab away. We're spending time on the jab, and body
punches." Alcazar believes that De La Hoya will have learned from the Quartey fight, and that
Carr will feel the heat in a way that the challenger might not anticipate. "I do not see Oba Carr taking Oscar's punches," Alcazar said. "I
think - and I'm probably wrong - that as soon as Oscar touches [hits] him, he's
going down. That's what I can see from watching Oba Carr's tapes. I think
Oscar's too strong for him. I think, around seven rounds." But Carr's manager, Tom Loeffler, said from his Los Angeles office that the De La
Hoya camp is in for a surprise. He said: "I think people underestimate the Oba Carr
that will show up on the 22nd. The Ike Quartey of two years ago, when Carr fought him, was
a better fighter than the Ike Quartey coming off an 18-month layoff. Other than Quartey,
he will be the only fully fledged welterweight that De La Hoya has fought. He will have
had seven weeks to prepare. He's hungry. He knows what this fight will mean to him if
he wins. I like his chances." And, true, Carr deserves respect. He has speed, good combinations, a good left hook,
and although he started out as a lightweight he has been a welterweight for six years. He
has consistently demonstrated gameness, such as surviving two knockdowns to outpoint
former lightweight champ Livingstone Bramble in a rousing fight more than seven years ago,
and, more recently, battling with a hairline jaw fracture in his last two fights -
including the comfortable victory over Frankie Randall in February that earned him the
shot at De La Hoya. Carr narrowly but deservedly outscored Derrell Coley - currently the official
challenger to De La Hoya - and he fought well against Trinidad and Quartey. But Carr had
to come off the floor to earn a 10-round draw with Detroit rival Anthony Jones in a fierce
fight in October 1997, and Jones is not regarded as an especially hard hitter. Although Carr will give everything, one has to wonder if he will be able to stand up to
De La Hoya's punches for 12 rounds. Even though Carr may well have success early on,
it seems inevitable that he will have to take heavy shots. One punch will not do it, but a
battery of blows from De La Hoya would probably be too much for Carr to absorb. But Carr does not intend to be a target. He will use speed, angles, and call on all his
experience, fighting when he has to fight, boxing when he has to box. He will not be
disgraced. But I believe that De La Hoya will find a way to get to him and start slowing
him down by the middle rounds, paving the way for a fight-ending barrage by the Golden Boy
at some stage in the last three rounds. |
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