How is De la Hoya a good/great fighter?

Question

He lost every big fight in his career, he lost to Trinidad, Mosley twice, Hopkins and Mayweather. He's never beaten amy great fighters. How is he considered the best, it it because he's rich?

Answer 1

He beat Ike Quartey, Pernell Whitaker, Juilo Ceasar Chavez (twice), Fernando Vargas, Oba Carr, Hector Camacho, Miguel Gonzalez, and a slew of other very good fighters.....I know you can take issues with each fighter or win, but the same can be said for Trinidad, Mosely, Hopkins, Mayweather, Calzaghe and loads of other fighters who are called great.  

What seperates De la Hoya from the very good fighters and makes him great is, along with his skills, his willingness to take on every big fight that came his way.  And, other than the Hopkins fight, he has never been outclassed or dominated by any of the other great fighters of his era, notabley split decisions to Mosley and Mayweather, and his controversial loss to Trinidad - all of those fights could have easily gone the other way.  There may be modern fighters with resumes as impressive as Oscar's but I don't know that there is one with a substantially more impressive one; and certainly no fighter of the past 20 years.

If you start from a position of naming fighters you consider to be great from this era, basically any criteria you use will end with a result of showing De la Hoya as a great fighter too.

Like I was saying, you could point to a ton of great fighters and pick apart their careers - Hopkins?  Never beat any great fighters at their natural weight or in their prime - Mayweather would have to list an even older version Hernandez, Gatti, Baldomir and Hatton as most of his top wins...his top win would be against De la Hoya, so how can he be great???  Oscar didn't want any part of Pavlik, RJJ or Jermaine Taylor?  Well Pavlik and Taylor don't want any part of David Tua...they must be trash.  Implying that Oscar ducks guys is competely foolish.

You guys are retarded, no one says Oscar is the greatest fighter ever or anything like that - and by just listing other great fighters doesn't make Oscar average.  Thats just stupid.

Answer 2

Oscar De La Hoya's appeal and praise is still a mystery to me. He lost to Pernell Whitaker, though he got the gift decision. He lost to Shane Mosley twice, though some argue that he won the rematch, I actually never saw the rematch. He loses all his big fights. He's really not a good fighter and doesn't deserve to be on anyone's list of all-time greats.

Answer 3

because of how he fights, 1st of all we all know who won the fight with trinidad(DLH obviously won), 2nd b-hop is a beast and was bigger then DLH, 3rd I personally think the the mosely fight and DLH was a tie, and last but not least the DLH and mayweather fight was obviously fixed no doubt

Answer 4

His losses have been by a minimum margin.

We all know he beat Trinidad.

You can definitely argue that he beat Mosley who used STEROIDS in the rematch.

He beat Quartey-Many say he could've lost that fight, but he proved to be better in the last rounds, specially the 12th.

He beat Whitaker- Even Whitaker's corner told Pernell that they were losing the fight in between rounds 9 and 10, and we all saw what Whitaker did in the 12th.

He beat Vargas- If it's a big win for Trinidad, why isn't a big win for Oscar?

He beat Gatti- Mayweather's "legacy" is based on Gatti

Oba Carr-Great fighter, only been defeated once or twice before he fought De La Hoya

He beat Mayorga-The man who beat Vernon Forrest Twice

He beat Chavez Twice-Only had 1 loss before Oscar fought

him

Big E you argue about him losing against Whitaker, what about Mosley in the rematch or Trinidad?

Pure one-eyed Whitaker d**k riding.

Answer 5

all $$$$$$$$

I will get flamed, but I do not consider a guy GREAT because of PPV #'s for his fights.

still have to win the big ones.

this guys biggest name fights he "won" were all controversial.

whitaker -  the earth knows he lost that fight (ps- didn't want a rematch either...LOL)

Quartey- fight was easily a draw or quartey by SD

chavez - DUDE was like 80 years old

vargas - LOL HA HA HA

now don't get me started on his losses.

added: HA HA HA at the first poster.....look at your first names...did I call it or what. LOL.

How dare you put that up there if you saw all those fights and still try to use them to define his greatness

Answer 6

I agree with you totally!!!   He also had a big fight against Pernell sweet pea Whittaker & was handed a decision that he didn't deserve.   He beat up a way past his prime Julio Casear Chavez & didn't beat any outstanding fighters.   He's not in the class of the Leonards, Hearns, Durans & Haglers who fought everyone.  Leonard, Hearns & Duran all started at around 140 to 147lbs & ended around 178lbs so Oscar could have done the same, however after he rec'd the power that 168lb Hopkins had he chose never to put himself in a position where he has to dig down deep & beat a bigger & stronger fighter.   How come Trinidad wanted to solidify his legacy & fight Hopkins & Jones Jr?   You never saw Oscar say he wanted any part of Jones Jr, Kelly Pavlik or Jermain Taylor.  Instead he wants to fight little Ricky Hatton or much smaller fighters.   Oscar had the opportunity after the Olympics & turning pro to really be special but he just turned into someone that wants money & doesn't want the challenge!!!   He's an above average fighter but nothing special!!!

Answer 7

Well to his credit he has beat Julio Cesar Chavez (2), Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho, Ike Quartey, Arturo Gatti, Fernando Vargas, Felix Sturm, Jeff Mayweather and Ricardo Mayorga

As far as his fights w/ Trinidad, Mosley, Hopkins and Mayweather consider this, that all these fighters are a  guaranteed Hall of Fame boxers.

Theres no shame in those losses and depending on who you talk to you can make the arguement that DLH won his fights w Trinadad and Mosley and according to 1 of the 3 judge's in the Mayweather bout he also won that fight.

He also has a style that comes foward to fight even though it didnt always benefit him. Which allowed him to break PPV sells records not once but twice because w/ the combination of his style and fights with the big names of boxing made him the most watched boxer in history.

So with that said i cant see how he cant be considered at Minimal a good fighter if not a great fighter and with out a dought in my mind he has definetly been great for boxing in general because i cant imagine what boxing would have been over the past 12 years without him. Being that he was a solidfy point for the opponents he lost to.