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HBO PPV de la Hoya/Mayweather "The World Awaits" Recap

May 5, 2007

MGM Grand Garden-Las Vegas, Nevada

WBCSuper Welterweight (154 pounds) 12 RoundChampionship Match:

Oscar de la Hoya (38-4, 30 KO's, 154 pounds) (c)vs. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (37-0, 24 KO's, 150 pounds)

de la Hoya was greeted to the arena by a loud cheers from all of the backstage people, security, state troopers and every other variety of law enforcement securing the building included. They cheered him the entire way down the back hallways of the MGM Grand Garden to his locker room. The key forde la Hoyatonight is to use the speed and quickness he has effectively in this match.He also,needs to have the stamina to stay with Mayweather for 12 rounds. Everything else to be said about de la Hoya's part in this match can be found elsewhere on this website. There were no new developments in the de la Hoya camp, between Mike Sempervive's last report and bell time. de la Hoya older by 4 years at the age of 34 years old is 2.5 inches taller standing 5' 10.5" tall. He gives up two inches in reach to Mayweather, Jr., with a24" to Mayweather's 26" reach. No unofficial weights were made available for either boxer as of the time of the match.

Mayweather did not receive the same warm response arrivingat the building, but the people backstagewere at least polite enough not to boo him. Mayweather, Jr. has seen the drama with his father, Floyd Mayweather, Sr.,take a new and interesting twist today. Junior decided to leave Senior tickets to the event after all. This is after, as covered thoroughly at the bottom of my last recap Junior was not going to, so de la Hoya had tickets sent to Senior. Tonight with two sets of tickets available for him to take, Senior chose to sit in the seats left for him by de la Hoya, and not the ones left by his son. Since, Junior is watching the broadcast back in his dressing room if he was not aware of that fact before, he was made aware of it during round 7 of the match just before his own. Senior explicitly communicated this to the HBO broadcast team. This cannot help Junior's mind set less then 30 minutes before the biggest match of his life. Senior went on to tell the HBO broadcast team that he was skeptical his son would even leave him a ticket to the event (which Junior did do), and that de la Hoya had rented Senior a hotel room for the entire weekend. That last part seems especially odd considering Senior lives in Las Vegas, but expect to see him at de la Hoya's after party. Senior said all of this with the intention of his son hearing it, right before going out to compete. Mayweather, Sr. seems to have picked his man to root for in the match and that person definitely does not call him Dad. Mayweather, Jr. waits an extra minute after he has been told to make his entrance to the arena before leaving his dressing room to increase the drama. Then, ifMayweather, Jr. needed to heel on the crowd anymore he is coming to the ring in a sombrero (worn backwards)and a robe decorated with the colors of the Mexican flag and rhinestones. His entire entourage is coming out wearing the colors of the Mexican flag and leading him out singing his entrance song is rapper 50 Cent, wearing a bullet proof vest in the colors of the Mexican flag. For those reading who do not know, this match is taking place on Cinco de Mayo, which in the US is a day to celebrate Mexican pride and heritage. Floyd's uncle, and current trainer Roger, use to do similar things before his matches. The men in Mayweather's corner and the ones he gave tickets to might be the only spectatorsin the arena cheering for him to win after that display. Even Mayweather's trunks, have the colors of the Mexican flag on them.

The rules of the contest are the unified rules of boxing, which have been in effect all night. Harold Lederman, will again be keeping unofficial score for HBO.

Round 1 to Mayweather, 10-9. A perceived key for de la Hoya was to use his jab effectively and de la Hoya hardly threw it in the round 1. de la Hoya's trainer, Freddie Roach, told de la Hoya immediately upon returning to his corner to use the jab more. The strategy they seem to want to use is to get Mayweather against the ropes where de la Hoya can neutralize Mayweather's speed. In round 1 it did not work at all, as Mayweather is even faster then it appeared de la Hoya thought. Towards the end of round 1, de la Hoya was warned about low blows. de la Hoya seems intent on throwing a lot of body punches and many of them are getting precariously low, but the referee is likely to let a lot go in this match. Freddie Roach expected it would take a few rounds for de la Hoya to get used to the speed of Mayweather, so fans of the Golden Boy are told to not be alarmed if de la Hoya struggles early. Round 1 saw de la Hoya connect on 3 punches, while Mayweather landed 7 punches. Great round 2 for de la Hoya. That was what everyone paid $55 for, as de la Hoya takes round 2, 10-9. There was a lot of good engagement in that round and chants of "Oscar" started a little more than a minute left in the round. de la Hoya only out landed Mayweather 15 to 14 in round 2, but it looked a lot better than that with de la Hoya throwing many more punches. Lederman gave round 1 to Mayweather and 2 to de la Hoya, putting both of us through 2 at even, 19-19. Mayweather wins round 3, 10-9. Whenever de la Hoya pushes the action he is very effective. When de la Hoya sits back and looks to be more strategic with his punches, Mayweather wins in those situations. Lederman also scored round 3 for Mayweather, 10-9. Through 3 rounds we both have it in favor of Mayweather, 29-28.

Round 4 to de la Hoya, 10-9. de la Hoya was able to get Mayweather up against the ropes several times in that round and land potentially not the most effective punches, but a high volume of punches. After the bell to end round 4, de la Hoya finished a combination on Mayweather's head, evenafter he had been told to stop punching. Mayweather's corner is instructing him to keep the bout in the center of the ring. Lederman scored round 4 for Mayweather, 10-9. Mayweather wins round 5, 10-9. There is a mark beginning to show around the left eye of de la Hoya. Lederman scored round 5 for Mayweather, 10-9. Round 6 goes to Mayweather, 10-9. Lederman scored round 6 forde la Hoya, 10-9. Our scorecards work out the same with Mayweather leading after round 6, 58-56. Through 6 rounds Mayweather has out landed de la Hoya 99 punches to 67 punches.

de la Hoya returns to throwing the jab and wins round 7, 10-9. Mayweather's corner is telling him that de la Hoya is going to run out of gas and then he (Mayweather) can pull away on the scorecards. The problem is de la Hoya does not appear to be tiring, yet. Lederman scored round 7 for de la Hoya, 10-9. Round 8 is very hard to score, but I'm going to lean towards Mayweather, 10-9. Lederman also, scored round 8 for Mayweather, 10-9. Round 9 goes to de la Hoya, 10-9. Lederman scores round 9 forMayweather, 10-9. Through 9 my card has it for Mayweather, 86-85. Lederman has it for Mayweather, 87-84. Emmanuel Stewart's scorecard has the match scored through round 9 for Mayweather,86-85. de la Hoya is being the busierpuncher in the last several rounds.

Mayweather wins round 10, 10-9. In round 10, Mayweather out landed de la Hoya 20 punches to 7 punches. Lederman, also scores round 10 for Mayweather, 10-9. Mayweather wins round 11, 10-9. de la Hoya has abandoned the jab, and is not pushing the pace. He appears tired and frustrated. Mayweather threw 64 punchesin round 11 one of his top outputs of the bout and de la Hoya's punches thrown number was down by at least 15 over what he was doing in a very slow round to 47. Lederman scored round 11 for Mayweather, 10-9. Had de la Hoya won at least one of the last two rounds he could have hoped to steal a decision with just winning round 12, but now he needs a knockout to win. de la Hoya has never knocked an opponent out in round 12. de la Hoya gives it his best, but Mayweather wins round 12, 10-9. Lederman scored round 12 in favor of de la Hoya, 10-9. Our final scores end up working out again the same in favor of Mayweather, 116-112. Floyd Mayweather, Sr. has joined his son in the ring after the match before the decision is read.

The final decision is the judges score the match: 115-113 de la Hoya, 116-112 Mayweather, 115-113 for the winner by split decision and new WBC Super Welterweight Champion of the World, "Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather. Jr. The final Compu Box numbers show de la Hoya landed 122 of 587 punches thrown, good for a 21% connect percentage. Meanwhile, Mayweather landed 207 punches of 481 punches thrown, good for a 43% connect percentage. Mayweather connected on 57% of his power punches. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is now 38-0 with 24 wins coming by way of knockout. The scorecard in favor of de la Hoya seemed very generous and Max Kellerman buried that judge in the wrap up for doing a bad job keeping score.

Mayweather, Jr. in his post match interview made sure to emphasize that he owed his thanks to the leader of team Mayweather, Roger Mayweather. He repeatedly emphasized how important Roger was in a manner that appearedas taking shots at his dad. He did thank his dad in general. Mayweather, then reaffirmed he is going to retire having accomplished everything he wanted to do. He says he has nothing left to prove and wants to spend the rest of his life with his young children. This should be remembered as a boxing retirement, so should last about three days.

In the post match interview, de la Hoya said he felt he won the match. He did not think he needed a knockout to win in round 12. de la Hoya says he still loves boxing and is not inclined to retire. He is going to go back and look at the videotape and see if his skills are still at competitive levels. Based on this showing, he appears to still be a top echelon boxer. When de la Hoya was asked why he stopped throwing his jab, he really did not know or have a good answer. He just stopped throwing it for no apparent reason, even to himself.

Now to the post match interview with Floyd Mayweather, Sr. Senior believes that de la Hoya should have won the decision. He sounds very much like a man angling to get his job as de la Hoya's trainer back.

This was a good boxing event. Notthe legendary boxing event it washyped to be. It was a little better than expected.Ifsomeone watched this event with realistic expectations, they were fulfilled.