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September 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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LANDSLIDE? THE EXPERTS' OPINION POLL
The boxing experts go big for Trinidad, but are they correct to doubt De La Hoya in this fashion? Opinion poll conducted by GRAHAM HOUSTON |
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PRIDE OF PUERTO RICO: Felix Trinidad is a national hero but single-minded
devotion to boxing will be key, say fight-traders
- Get Big Pic Oscar
De La Hoya’s welterweight title fight with Felix Trinidad has the
fight game buzzing: two undefeated young champions, each capable of
hurting the other. A poll of some of the most knowledgeable people in
boxing showed that the weight of opinion within the trade is that
Trinidad will win, although several of those polled felt that they
simply could not pick a winner. Some cited the fact that De La Hoya’s
varied interests as opposed to Trinidad’s 100% focus could be a big
factor, others pointed out that the way Trinidad performed more impressively
than De La Hoya against two common opponents, Pernell Whitaker and Oba
Carr, is a clear indication that the Puerto Rican is simply the better
fighter. But here is what those polled had to say:
EMANUEL STEWARD (who trained De La Hoya for his fights with David Kamau
and Hector Camacho):
I hate to say it, but I have to go with Felix. I
don't like to make that prediction, because of all the fighters I've
worked with in recent years, Oscar's one of my closest. But I just feel,
at this point in time, that he's not prepared, and I think Felix is -
spiritually and talent-wise. Anyone who saw Oscar's last two fights and
feels that Oscar is looking good, I have a problem with them. They're
not being realistic. The last two fights, he not only didn't seem to
have the confidence, he seemed to have no unity with his corner, he just
sits and looks out into space and goes out and does whatever he can. I
just don't like what I saw. I just wish the fight had taken place two
years ago, or maybe would take place a little later so he can get
himself together. Even when I was training Oscar, I told him Felix was,
to me, the best fighter in the world, pound for pound. But we'll see
what happens.
BOBBY CZYZ (ex-champ, TV analyst):
Unless some drastic, weird thing
happens, I think Trinidad dominates him. You saw Whitaker and De La
Hoya. I thought Whitaker won the fight. Oba Carr was dominating De La
Hoya. Trinidad destroyed both of those fighters. I don't think De La
Hoya has the chin or the guts. And here's the thing. Trinidad has the
reach, and the same height. De La Hoya doesn't have the height and reach
to keep away, doesn't have the height and reach to make the other
fighter work harder. They both go down from time to time, but when De La
Hoya gets up, he's not set. When Trinidad gets up, he's twice as
dangerous. I think Trinidad by mid to late-round knockout, or he just
dominates the fight and De La Hoya survives. Anybody that's smart would
bet Trinidad. I think the further the fight goes, the more problems De
La Hoya has. I think he has to take a shot [go all out] early - because
De La Hoya can punch.
TEDDY ATLAS (trainer, TV analyst):
I can see a lot of guys favouring
Trinidad, some of it justly, some of it misperception. The last
performances of both guys would kind of favour Trinidad but he's been in
with the lesser-quality guys. You have to take that into the evaluation.
Who knows how Trinidad would do with [Ike] Quartey? We forget that he's
been on the floor with some opposition that hasn't been as keen as some
of the guys Oscar has fought. Trinidad's a good offensive fighter, he's
technically sound and his temperament is to be a fighter. Trinidad's
never been in one of these fights for all the marbles, in the middle of
this kind of spotlight.
Trinidad reminds me of a young Terry Norris. One of his [Norris's]
greatest vulnerabilities was that he would not know how to switch from
offense to defence. Sometimes his instincts offensively would hurt him
defensively, he'd kinda stay there a little too long. Instead of
throwing three [punches] and being satisfied, he'd stand there for five,
and he'd get nailed on the fifth. He'd get caught out of nowhere in the
middle of his last punch with a punch he didn't see, and he'd be hurt. I
see that happening sometimes with Trinidad, where he doesn't switch off
the offense in time.
I can see the fight going where Trinidad is winning the fight all the
way up to the moment where he gets caught, because of what I see as
being a flaw in him.
Oscar has found a way, throughout his career, of landing a punch when
he needed to. He did it in the Olympics when he needed to. He's done it
in the pros. That's not luck. That's a talent, a quality that's part of
his makeup. He finds a way to win - sometimes under extreme
circumstances. And Oscar might have the better chin - when it counts -
than Felix does. And there's something you don't notice at first with
Oscar - with all the Golden Boy stuff, the looks, the money; he's a
fighter at core.
ROGER BLOODWORTH (trainer):
I was really surprised that Oscar took the
fight. I thought all along, and I had predicted, that he would never
fight Trinidad. I think it's a dangerous fight for Oscar. Trinidad can
punch, he can maybe a box a little bit better than Oscar. But Oscar's
maybe a little quicker than Trinidad - and he can punch. Neither one of
them has a chin, so either one could get knocked out. It's a very hard
fight to predict. It could be one round, or the whole 12 rounds. I kinda
favour Trinidad because I think he's had a little tougher fights and
he's maybe a little bit stronger. But Oscar could knock him out, too.
FREDDIE ROACH (trainer):
I like Trinidad a little bit. I think he's a
bit better puncher. If Oscar fights like he's done in his last two
fights and trades with this guy, he might find Trinidad is too big a
puncher. Oscar will do better if he's smart and boxes the guy. One thing
in Oscar's favour is that Trinidad does have a lot of trouble making 147
pounds. I hope Oscar wins; he's good for boxing.
JOE GOOSSEN (trainer, who was in the other corner from De La Hoya with
Rafael Ruelas):
Trinidad is walking through his opponents right now.
He's really dismantling them. He's the stronger of the two and he's a
two-handed fighter. Oscar is awesome with the left, but in the fight
with Oba Carr I thought he took too much time off in the rounds. Maybe
he's getting too complacent with guys he doesn't perceive as a
challenge. Carr was getting the right hand in. You could have made a
case for Carr winning quite a few of those rounds. With Ike Quartey it
was another neck-and-neck fight. With Trinidad I see single-mindedness.
He doesn't waste time in the ring. You saw how bothersome Quartey's jab
was to Oscar. Quartey only had a business-as-usual right hand, but I'm
surprised it landed as often as it did. You have to think what happens
if Trinidad's right hand lands - it's sharper and straighter than
Quartey's. If De La Hoya doesn't step up the intensity he showed in
earlier fights, he's in trouble. I think it's a pick-em fight, but
unless Oscar can get the focus back he may not have the edge that
Trinidad has going into it.
DON CHARGIN (long-time promoter and matchmaker):
I like De La Hoya. He
always seems to find a way to win those fights, if it's having a big
last round or something. We're far in advance, I might change - but from
the time the fight was announced I liked De La Hoya. I think it's going
to be a long fight. No matter what they're both saying, there's got to
be a lot of respect for the other guy - the punching power and
all-around boxing ability. They're not going to go out and get foolish,
neither one of them.
ALEX RAMOS (former middleweight prospect):
You have two great fighters.
De La Hoya has been the busier fighter, but the better fighter, the
better puncher - the brains - I think is Felix Trinidad. He can really
fight. He's unbelievable. It's going to be an incredible fight. In the
blink of an eye, something can happen. I like them both. As far as who's
going to win, I really don't know. But by watching the first 30 seconds,
I believe you'll know who's going to win the fight.
RONNIE SHIELDS (trainer, former light-welter contender):
I think it's
gonna be a great fight. Although they're both champions, people think of
Oscar as the champion, so the pressure is on Trinidad. I feel if Oscar
can hurt Trinidad early, he has a good shot [at winning], but if he
comes out slow, like he did with Ike Quartey, I see him getting hit too
much. Overall, I think Trinidad is the better fighter and will probably
stop him late. But Trinidad has to get an outright win because I don't
think he can get a decision in a close fight.
KEVIN KELLEY (former featherweight champion, analyst for promoter Cedric
Kushner's Heavyweight Explosion TV shows):
I think that Oscar's gonna
try to prove something - and Trinidad's definitely gonna try to prove
something. What I know about Trinidad - and I've spent some time with
him - it's personal. He really don't like Oscar. So Oscar's got to gain
his respect. This fight is long overdue. Like everybody else, I just
want to see the outcome. Oscar has a great left hook but Trinidad has
two hands. I don't make predictions, including on my own fights, but the
fight's not going past five rounds.
SHELLY FINKEL (top manager):
I think that it's an early fight; I don't
think it's going to go near the distance. My own gut feeling is under
six rounds. I wouldn't be surprised who won, but early on [two months
before the fight] I go with Trinidad, although Oscar can hit pretty
good. Trinidad goes down early, but he gets up. I just lean a little
towards Trinidad.
LOU DUVA (veteran manager and trainer):
I like Trinidad. I think he'll
get knocked down by De La Hoya, but he'll get up. I'm not sure about De
La Hoya. I think if De La Hoya gets hurt, he's going to panic and throw
caution to the wind, and that's gonna be the end of him - when he does
that, Trinidad's gonna knock him out. I look for somewhere around six to
eight rounds.
JOSE TORRES (former light-heavyweight champion, now a writer and
broadcaster):
Fourteen months ago [as of July] I thought that De La Hoya
would beat Trinidad. But then [in his most recent fights] I noticed that
Tito Trinidad was still improving, even though he has been a champ for
five years. He handled Whitaker with so much ease and with a very
special defensive mode. Now - when he knocked out the last guy, Hugo
Pineda, I was in shock how much more he had improved. He was like a
perfect fighter. That made me take another look at the situation. Now I
feel that Tito Trinidad is fighting in another dimension that is very
hard to figure out - he's like a perfect machine. That, in combination
with the fact that De La Hoya has millions and millions in the bank,
that he is making money inside and outside the ring, that he has been
signing contracts for millions and millions - I think that takes the
hunger away from De La Hoya. So I think the chances are that when you
put that equation into your head, you have to come out with the idea
that Trinidad should knock out De La Hoya. De La Hoya has no hunger, and
that is not controlled by the person - there is a switch in the brain
that turns off automatically, and nobody can turn it on. And I think
that that switch has been turned off in De La Hoya. He's a great
fighter, but I think he can not reach the dimension of today's Tito
Trinidad. De La Hoya has not improved. To me, that means he is not
hungry. But if he gets hungry for this fight, who knows? I once said
that my heart is with Trinidad but my money is with De La Hoya, but I've
switched: my heart is with De La Hoya but my money is with Trinidad. I
expect Trinidad to win, but I would not be in shock if De La Hoya wins.
KENNY ADAMS (trainer):
Until Oscar's fight with Oba Carr, I thought
Oscar would win because he thinks more about strategy. Trinidad goes in
and it's a war, he just drives forward. I thought that would be his
downfall, and Oscar would pick him off. But now I pick Trinidad. Oba
Carr doesn't have the greatest chin, but Oscar didn't do nothing much to
him at all. Oscar has so many things on his mind, has made so many
changes, that's hard on a guy. Trinidad might be a lot more hungry.
DON MAJESKI (international agent):
I believe De La Hoya will beat
Trinidad on a 12-round decision. I think he's a bit better fighter, he
seems to be able to pull things out, like he did against Quartey with
the knockdown late and Oba Carr with the knockout in the 11th round.
Trinidad has tremendous natural skills, but I just think there's a
little bit too much maturity in De La Hoya for him. But I think it's
going to be a great fight and could be the first of a series, because
it's two guys fighting in the prime of their career, which is a real
rarity today.
DAN GOOSSEN (chief operating officer, America Presents):
Based on their
most recent performances, Trinidad seems the sharper of the two, but I
lean towards Oscar because he finds a way to win even when he's not
looking good.
FERDIE PACHECO (TV analyst, long-time boxing observer):
The bottom line
is, I think Trinidad's going to knock him out. Why? I've followed each
fighter completely, but I discovered Trinidad in his second or third
fight and put him on Univision [the Spanish-language TV network].
Trinidad is physically more imposing than the other guy - taller,
rangier kind of guy. He is an excellent boxer. But, more than that, he
is a devastating finisher. I don't see De La Hoya outboxing him, and as
far as getting someone in trouble and finishing him, it seems to me that
in all of his recent fights he's had a lot of trouble finishing people.
He gets them in trouble but he can't put them out. Contrast that with
the way Trinidad economically husbands his punches. He goes to the ribs,
he hooks to the head. He hooks to the head, he goes back down to the
ribs. The guy is a Sugar Ray Robinson type of pinpoint puncher. He is a
finisher. You get in trouble with Trinidad, you are in trouble. And when
a boxer is solely concentrated on boxing, does nothing but that, he
usually has the advantage over a guy who has five other things he's
worried about [referring to De La Hoya's celebrity lifestyle].
Trinidad's a 1990s equivalent of Rocky Marciano or Joe Louis. I'll take
the guy that's got the edge in height, in punching ability, who has
concentrated solely on the fight and has a spectacular record against
better opposition. I'll take that guy over the darling that's great
looking, that fights nice, exciting and all that, but who hasn't quite
come up to snuff. Oscar's a fine fighter, he has a good heart, but I see
too many negatives and I don't see how he's going to overcome that.
JAMES PAGE (WBA welterweight champion, who claims to have dropped De La
Hoya in sparring):
I think Trinidad might win the fight. He's stronger,
the better puncher.
MIGUEL DIAZ (trainer):
The fight's going to be very interesting, very
even. Two great champions, and I cannot pick a winner. Oscar wasn't too
clever in the last two fights. If he boxes smart, I think Oscar wins,
but if he trades with Trinidad it becomes a shootout and anyone can win
- the one who connects first.
AL BERNSTEIN (longtime TV boxing analyst):
It's a 50-50 fight. De La
Hoya hasn't looked good in his last couple of fights, and Trinidad has
looked good, even coming off a layoff. But, given that, they both punch
hard, they both can be hurt and they have very similar styles. I go back
and forth: one day Trinidad, the next De La Hoya. I used to think De La
Hoya - easily. Two years ago if you'd asked me this question I would
have said he would have knocked him out in two rounds. Guys had hurt
Trinidad - guys like Anthony Stephens. But De La Hoya's technique has
eroded so much - now I don't know.
CORNELIUS BOZA-EDWARDS (former super featherweight champ, now a
trainer):
I like Oscar. He's the quicker, sharper fighter, the cleaner
puncher as regards jabs hitting the target, the way I look at it. Felix
takes time to get started, takes time to get rid of someone, he can
catch up with Oscar later on - but who's gonna get off first? Looking at
the two guys, the one who gets off first is Oscar. While Trinidad's
going to be looking to unload the bombs, the other guy's gonna be coming
up with blazing guns. Felix has his hands up above his chin but his
hands aren't really a defence mechanism. Oscar uses his feet as a
defence mechanism, and he has his hands in front, like Roy Jones. If
Felix has Oscar on the deck, he's not a quick finisher, he's a heavy
loader, while if Oscar puts Felix on the deck, he's gonna jump on him.
I've got to go with Oscar.
FLOYD MAYWEATHER SR. (manager and trainer of his son Floyd Mayweather
Jr.; former welterweight):
Trinidad looked awfully good in his last
fight. I think his defence has got better. De La Hoya showed me the
heart of a champion when he fought Quartey. I don't want to call it
[pick a winner] but I look for it to be a real good, exciting fight, and
I don't think the fight will go the distance. One of them is going to
go.
ANGELO DUNDEE (legendary trainer):
We're gonna see how De La Hoya can
handle height, because he's used to fighting small guys. His left hook
counter is a danger to Trinidad, but De La Hoya has a tendency to back
up and you can't back up from Trinidad because you give him momentum.
This won't go five, six rounds because someone is gonna get bombed. Toss
a coin. But I think the coin toss points towards Trinidad. Oscar has so
many things going on. Trinidad knows only one way - train! But I do make
this a tough, tough fight. The plus for De La Hoya is that counter left
hook. I'm thinking of Nino Benvenuti and Luis Rodriguez [the latter a
Cuban trained by Dundee]. I told Luis: 'Box, box, box!' but he said:
'I'm gonna knock him out.' [Benvenuti, behind on points and cut on the
bridge of the nose, knocked out Rodriguez in the 11th round.] It's an
artistic match-up, both guys have trouble making welterweight, there are
questions on both sides. So, there you go.
BOB MITTLEMAN (co-manager of De La Hoya when the Olympic gold medallist
turned professional, later stepped down for a monetary consideration):
Off De La Hoya's last fight, against Oba Carr, he'll get drilled if he
fights that style. But I know Oscar. He won't fight that fight with
Trinidad. He'll have his shoulders hunched, move around the ring
perimeter. He'll box like he did against Ike Quartey, maybe use some of
the defensive tricks he picked up from the professor [veteran trainer
Jesus Rivero, who was brought on board to improve De La Hoya's defence
but did not last]. It will be more of a chess match than people want to
see. I can see Felix being the gunman here. Oscar seems to be holding a
punch better than he used to, but he has never been challenged like
this. But I wouldn't bet against Oscar. I bet some fights, but not this
one - this is a fight I just want to watch.
ABEL SANCHEZ (trainer, worked with Miguel Angel Gonzalez against De La
Hoya):
My heart is with Oscar, but if I had to bet on it, I'd bet on
Felix. I think he's a better puncher, and Oscar has levelled out - he
hasn't improved enough in the last several fights as Felix has improved.
Oscar is just as good a fighter, but Felix hits harder. I think Oscar's
faster than Felix. If he wins, he wins by moving in, doing his thing and
coming on out, just outhustling Felix, not try to knock him out. I think
it may be a boring fight because Oscar's going to do what it takes to
win. Regardless of what strategy they work on, I think he will do
whatever he thinks is necessary, in his mind, to win the fight. But
Felix hits awfully hard, that's the scary part.
THEL TORRENCE (trainer):
I have to pick Trinidad, if only because of the
inadequacies of De La Hoya - he's been a little tight [tense] and seems
to get hit with those straight shots. Trinidad is so long and hits so
hard, I can see him hitting De La Hoya over Oscar's low hands and
stopping him somewhere down the line. If I were training Oscar for the
fight I'd keep him moving from side to side and stay loose, get his
shots off and get out of range - and have his hands up a little higher,
keep his head moving and not stay in front of Trinidad. I wouldn't be
surprised to see Trinidad down, but he comes back strong when he gets
up.
MICKEY DUFF (longtime matchmaker, manager and promoter):
I like De La
Hoya to beat anybody. I wouldn't like my life to depend on it, though.
But De La Hoya rises to the occasion in these kind of matches, he's
capable of pulling out that bit extra. I see it as a good fight - it
can't be anything else, because both guys will want to win so badly, and
neither one has the reputation of hiding themselves.
CURTIS COKES (former welterweight champion, trainer):
I'm leaning
towards Trinidad because I think he's a the better puncher and a more
fiery type of fighter than De La Hoya. I think Trinidad will probably
win by knockout. De La Hoya tries to please the crowd and fights out of
his mode sometimes. I would have him go back to his old style of boxing
and moving and not getting into exchanges. He's a mover. Getting into
exchanges is not his style. He has a good jab, good right hand, good
hook and he's a boxer. When he gets into those exchanges, he starts to
get busted up, gets his eye cut, his lip swollen. De La Hoya's got a lot
of heart but I think Trinidad will bust him up, he's got too much power.
I don't think these guys have the physical toughness that the guys in
my day had. When I was fighting, the guys wasn't ashamed to get knocked
down. It was part of the game. These guys, they get embarrassed when
they get knocked down and they jump up too quickly, don't have their
legs under them and still try to fight. There's a way to get up from a
knockdown.
CARLOS PALOMINO, former welterweight champion, now TV analyst, actor):
It depends on how Oscar fights. Technically I see Trinidad being the
superior fighter right now. I think he has a little more power than
Oscar, but I think Oscar has greater hand speed. If he can surprise
Trinidad early with his hand speed, he can do it, but if it goes past
four or five rounds and Trinidad starts to get rolling and warm up he
should be able to stop Oscar in the late rounds. Technically, I haven't
seen Oscar really improve that much. He always pretty much does the same
thing. He fights in a very sporadic kind of way. I don't see any real
technically correct combinations come out of him. He just lets his hands
go, and not many people have written about the fact that he misses a lot
of punches. I think it's because he throws his hands, hoping something's
going to land. In the fight against Quartey, in the 12th round, the guy
is completely out on his feet and he couldn't finish him. It's because
he goes crazy and throws punches without any rhyme or reason, without
setting anything up. You've got a guy hurt in a corner and he's wobbly,
just take your time, set the shots up and get him out. He must have
thrown 50 punches and landed three or four and then he ran out of gas.
Against a really top-notch guy, like against Whitaker, he had so many
problems even landing punches - and Trinidad was able to land at will on
Whitaker. Oba Carr did surprise Trinidad in that second round, but it
was a flash knockdown and Trinidad got up and he pretty much dominated
every round after the knockdown and he knocked Carr out in the eighth
round. He seems to be able to recover really quickly and then come on.
Against Oscar, Carr was winning all the middle rounds. And the thing
that really surprises me about Oscar, too, is that when he's not moving
on his feet, he's very easy to hit. Miguel Angel Gonzalez, who is slow
as molasses, was landing his right hand almost at will on him. When
Oscar stops moving, he seems to be very stiff, he doesn't have any head
movement, any upper-body movement, and I think that's why, if you can
time his jab, he kind of eats right hands - and Trinidad is pretty
lethal, his accuracy is really high. Being Mexican, my heart is with
Oscar, but if I was to bet on the fight - and I'm not a betting man - I
would bet on Trinidad, in the later rounds.
I worked for about three years with Showtime doing the Spanish
commentary and I got to see him up close a few times. I was at the fight
in Puerto Rico when he fought the African kid [Mahengu Zulu], and the
manager and trainer guaranteed at the press conference that Trinidad
would not be able to knock him out, that he could take anything and,
man, he devastated that poor kid - he froze him. It was a left hook,
right on the money - the kid was out when he got hit. But at times Oscar
seems like he's going backwards, like he's getting worse. Oscar looks
like a world-class amateur to me - but that hand speed will get you out
of a lot of trouble.
ARNIE ROSENTHAL (manager, TV analyst):
I really think Trinidad is too
powerful a puncher for him, he's got too much - it appears to me anyway
- of a reach advantage, he's going to be too much for Oscar. Oscar
pulled it out against Ike Quartey, but Quartey had been sitting out for
a long time and I don't think he's got the punching power that a
Trinidad has. I think Oscar would have had a much better chance fighting
him at 154lbs. I think that at 147lbs, Trinidad is going to be too heavy
a puncher for Oscar. In a distance fight I like Oscar, but I don't think
it's going to go to a decision. I think Trinidad's going to get to him
early and Oscar's going to be right there for him. I don't think Oscar
has the right style to stay away from Trinidad. He lunges in, leans
forward - I just think Trinidad's going to tag him all day long. I see
the fight going under six.
AL MITCHELL (trainer of world super welter champ David Reid):
I have to
go with Oscar - Oscar knows how to win. He can do a little bit of
everything. People don't give Oscar the credit. I think Oscar's one of
the great young fighters that's coming around. He's a good mental
fighter, and I like the way he does what he has to do in that last round
or two rounds. Sure, he's been in some close bouts but, guess what, he
got the win.
DAVID REID (World Boxing Association super welter champion):
I want
Oscar to win - for my sake - but that fight is a pick 'em fight because
Trinidad is a great champion and he has been for a lot of years. We've
got two young guys with two great wills to win. It's a great match-up.
That type of fight, it all boils down to who can take the best shot and
who wants it the most.
BOBBY GOODMAN (director of boxing for Trinidad's promoter, Don King):
Obviously it's the match of the year, one of the biggest of the decade.
I think that Trinidad has proven that he has really learned to fight. To
me he's the best welterweight in the world. I'm very impressed with De
La Hoya, especially late in a fight, but I think Trinidad will stop
Oscar in the sixth or seventh round.
BRUCE TRAMPLER (matchmaker for De La Hoya's promoter, Bob Arum):
It's
Oscar's fight to win or lose. If he fights the fight he's capable of, he
should win easily. If he lets emotion overrule his common sense and
discipline, and gets caught up in engaging in warfare, he can lose. You
have to factor in the motivation here - he's the one who wanted this
fight. Now he has to go out and do what he's capable of doing.
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