At last a meaningful world title fight between equals, a fight that really is for the Championship of the World, the Welterweight Champion of the World. Potentially this is the best welterweight fight since Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns in 1981
Could it be a classic talked about in the same breath as Leonard-Duran, Ali-Frazier, Saddler-Pep? To enter the annals of a true classic it probably needs to the first of three, close enough to demand a rematch and good enough that the punters want it. The fight needs no artificial King-size hype and expectation is high. The main hope is that the fight isn't an anticlimax and the boxers aren't overwhelmed by the occasion.
De La Hoya ( 31 wins, 0 losses, 24 KOs), out of Los Angeles via Mexico, has looked rather more mortal in his recent fights, especially against journeyman Oba Carr in his last fight. When you are the third highest sporting earner in the world after Michael Jordan and Evander Holyfield (in the region of $50m a year), there isn't quite the incentive there was at the start of your career. De La Hoya now has many interests out of the ring and isn't quite the full-time boxer he was.
In contrast Puerto Rican Trinidad (35 wins, 0 losses , 30 KOs) only knows one thing and that is boxing. His whole life is given over to the sport. Only 26, he has been a world champion for over six years since he kayoed former welter champ Maurice Blocker in two rounds in San Diego in June 1993.
It is interesting when you look at the opponents they have in common, Oba Carr, Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho. Both comfortably beat Camacho on points, but Trinidad won more easily against the other two. De La Hoya fought Whitaker in 97 when Whitaker was closer to his great days. When Trinidad fought Whitaker earlier this year, Whitaker was attempting a comeback after well-publicised drug troubles and still managed to last the full 12 rounds despite Trinidad breaking his jaw in the fourth. Against Oba Carr De La Hoya looked pedestrian whereas Trinidad disposed of him in the eighth, although Carr had surprised the Puerto Rican in the second and dumped him on the canvas.
Apart from the opponents they have in common, De La Hoya has fought the better quality fighters in his stay at the top. Ike Quartey, Miguel Gonzalez, Julio Cesar Chavez (x2), John John Molina, Genaro Hernandez, Jesse James Leija, Rafael Ruelas and Jorge Paez were all out of the top drawer whereas Trinidad would be hard to find fighters of similar stature in his roster - OK Freddie Pendleton, Yori Boy Campas and Maurice Blocker might be considered passable. There may be a reason for this. Fighters are willing to take on De La Hoya and risk the almost inevitable defeat because he is such a big draw the pay-day more than makes up for the pain of losing. Why get beaten by Trinidad and have nothing in the bank to show for it. So the better fighters have tended to avoid the Puerto Rican.
There is not much to choose between them and they're even less than a month apart in age. Trinidad is the more dedicated boxer, but De La Hoya always does just enough to win. Trinidad has been dropped by Yory Boy Campas, Oba Carr and Kevin Lueshing and De La Hoya has a knock-out punch. De La Hoya is the natural welter while Trinidad, who has fought at junior middle, might struggle to come in at 147 lbs.
The Las Vegas odds-makers cannot split them - they're both in the "pick'em" category. On that basis and remembering what happened at Madison Square Garden in the Lewis/Holyfield fiasco, I think that another draw, however unsatisfactory, is the likely outcome. So both boxers will retain their unbeaten records and a money-spinning re-match will be the first "Fight of the New Millenium".
E-MAIL me with any opinions that you may have such as fights that you would most like to see, or your own personal suggestion for the pound for pound greatest fighters.
