LAS VEGAS -- Concern was growing in Shane Mosley's corner as
the rounds went on and it became obvious his fight with Oscar De La
Hoya would be going to the judge's scorecards.
Jack Mosley wanted his son to do something spectacular -- and
fast.
"My father was trying to convey to me since we're in Las Vegas
and it's Oscar's town we had to pour it on in the last rounds,"
Mosley said.
It turned out the wrong corner was worried. In a city where De
La Hoya scored his biggest wins, he stood in shocked amazement as
the judges handed him his most disappointing defeat.
De La Hoya thought he should be celebrating. Instead, he now
plans to start investigating.
"I just feel in my heart the decision should have gone to me,"
De La Hoya said. "On Monday I will put a full investigation into
what happened. I'm fortunate I have the resources to put the best
lawyers on it."
Just what De La Hoya wants to have investigated is unclear. All
three judges scored the fight 115-113 for Mosley, and all three
gave Mosley the last four rounds. The Associated Press had Mosley
ahead 116-113.
Unless De La Hoya's lawyers can find some evidence of
malfeasance, the Golden Boy will have to live with the fact he now
has lost three times in his career -- with two of those losses to
Mosley.
"These are honest men and they scored the fight the way they
did. To me, there is no controversy," said Marc Ratner, director
of the Nevada Athletic Commission. "It's a close fight that could
have gone either way. This is the way the judges saw it. If it went
the other way, Mosley's camp would have been the ones protesting."
The decision enraged the normally mild-mannered De La Hoya. He
stood at the post-fight news conference, a bandage over his right
eye, and vowed to find out why he wasn't given the nod.
He might look at tapes of the ninth round, when Mosley battered
him around the ring, or the final round, where Mosley gained the
upper hand in some wild flurries, for some direction.
"You're a sore loser," someone yelled at De La Hoya.
"I'm not doing this because I'm a sore loser," he replied.
"I'm doing this for the sport of boxing."
For De La Hoya, the decision was a bitter end to a fight that
meant far more to him than his $17 million purse and the two gaudy
plastic 154-pound title belts he held from the WBA and the WBC.
The fight was billed as redemption for De La Hoya, who lost a
split decision to Mosley three years ago and desperately wanted to
win the rematch to establish his place in boxing history.
In both fights, De La Hoya won early rounds and Mosley came on
in the later rounds to win.
"Oscar's a Hall of Fame fighter," Mosley said. "I'm just the
one person he can't get by.''
Indeed, De La Hoya was frustrated at times again by Mosley's
speed. Ad it seemed as if Mosley was also the stronger fighter in a
tactical bout that was often fought with the two men circling each
other in the middle of the ring.
"I was in control physically," Mosley said. "I think I was
the stronger fighter."
De La Hoya was cut next to his right eye by a head butt in the
fourth round and appeared to be rocked on several occasions by
right hands from Mosley. But he also landed some good left hooks to
Mosley's jaw and got the better of Mosley in some occasional heavy
exchanges.
While Jack Mosley was telling his son to pick up the pace and
not let the judges get involved, De La Hoya's corner was happy with
the way the fight was going.
"We were never concerned in the corner," said De La Hoya's
trainer, Floyd Mayweather. "We never even thought of losing. It
never crossed our minds."
De La Hoya came to the news conference after the fight armed
with punch statistics that showed him landing 221 punches to 127
for Mosley. But those statistics are compiled by two people pushing
buttons when they think a punch lands -- a process nearly as
subjective as ringside judging.
Even the pro-De La Hoya crowd that packed the MGM Grand hotel
arena didn't seem all that disappointed, though there were
scattered boos. That might be because their fighter spent much of
the fight going backward while Mosley was the aggressor.
De La Hoya's promoter, Bob Arum, though, was so angered he said
he would stop promoting boxing. Of course, Arum has made similar
vows after his fighters lost other fights.
"This is such an outrage that I'm never, ever, going to be a
party to this again," Arum said.
De La Hoya wasn't so ready to quit himself, despite promising
before the fight to retire if he lost.
"I love boxing. I love fighting," he said. "We'll see what
happens with my future."