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| Date | June 17, 2000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, US | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBC and IBA welterweight titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mosley wins via 12–round split decision (116–112, 113–115, 115–113) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Oscar De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley , billed as Destiny, was a professional boxing match contested on June 17, 2000 for De La Hoya's WBC and IBA welterweight titles.
The previous year, De La Hoya had lost the WBC welterweight title to Félix Trinidad. De La Hoya's first loss as a professional was met with controversy, as De La Hoya seemed to be in control for most of the fight's first eight rounds. However, at the urging of his corner, De La Hoya took a more defensive approach in the later rounds, leading to Trinidad taking all of the final four rounds on the scorecards and a majority decision victory. De La Hoya demanded a rematch, but an agreement was never reached [1] Instead, De La Hoya took an "eliminator" bout with Derrell Coley, who was the number one ranked welterweight fighter by the WBC. The winner was originally set to become the mandatory challenger to Trinidad, but the winner was all but guaranteed to become the new WBC welterweight champion as Trinidad was on the verge of vacating the title in order to move up to the middleweight division and challenge David Reid. [2]
De La Hoya would defeat Coley by seventh round knockout to capture the lightly regarded IBA welterweight title, [3] and shortly after, was once again named the WBC welterweight champion. [4] With De La Hoya and Trinidad not able to come to terms on a rematch, De La Hoya instead reached an agreement in March 2000 to face Shane Mosley in June. [5] Mosley was undefeated 34 professional bouts and had previously fought in the lightweight division where he had been the IBF champion from 1997 to 1999 before relinquishing the title in September 1999 to move up to welterweight. At the time of his fight with De La Hoya, Mosley had only two welterweight fights to his credit, and as such, came into the fight as a 2-1 betting underdog. Nevertheless, Mosley was guaranteed no less than $4.5 million, the highest purse of his career at the time, while De La Hoya was set to earn $15 million. [6]
In a closely contested fight, Mosley would earn a narrow split decision victory to become only the sixth fighter (at the time) to win titles in both the lightweight and welterweight divisions. Two judges scored the fight for Mosley with scores of 116–112 and 115–113, while the third had De La Hoya the winner with a score of 115–113. HBO's unofficial scorer Harold Lederman also ruled in favor of Mosley with a score of 116–112. De La Hoya had a slight edge during some of the bout's early rounds, but as the fight went to the later rounds, De La Hoya seemed to tire and the fight began to turn in Mosley's favor. Mosley rallied to take rounds seven through 12 on one of the scorecards and five of the last six on the other, often scoring punches in flurries to win those rounds, which proved to be the difference in the fight. [7] The final punch stats were close, though Mosley had the overall edge, landing 284 of 678 thrown punches (42%) as opposed to De La Hoya's 257 of 718 (36%). Mosley also outlanded De La Hoya in both jabs and power punches. Mosley was able to land well over half his power punches, landing 174 of 304 for a 57% success rate. De La Hoya was only nine power punches short of Mosley, having landed 165, but at only a 37% success rate.
Like his fight against Trinidad, De La Hoya felt that he had won the fight and called for a rematch in his post-fight interview. However, De La Hoya was so disenchanted with the loss that he even considered retirement. [8] De La Hoya would not fight for the remainder of 2000, eventually returning to defeat Arturo Gatti in March 2001.
Mosley would successfully defend the welterweight title three times against three unheralded opponents before losing the title to Vernon Forrest in January 2002. After unsuccessfully challenging Forrest in a bid to regain the welterweight title, Mosley finally began talks with De La Hoya for the long awaited rematch. After months of negotiations, the two fighters finally came to an agreement in March 2003 to face one another on September 13, 2003. [9]
Julio César Chávez González, also known as Julio César Chávez Sr., is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 2005. A multiple-time world champion in three weight divisions, Chávez was listed by The Ring magazine as the world's best boxer, pound for pound, from 1990 to 1993. During his career he held the WBC super featherweight title from 1984 to 1987, the WBA and WBC lightweight titles between 1987 and 1989, the WBC light welterweight title twice between 1989 and 1996, and the IBF light welterweight title from 1990 to 1991. He also held the Ring magazine and lineal lightweight titles from 1988 to 1989, and the lineal light welterweight title twice between 1990 and 1996. Chávez was named Fighter of the Year for 1987 and 1990 by the Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring respectively.
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