The Golden Boy Captures His 9th Title in Six Weight Divisions

As expected Mayorga came out throwing his wild punches, but it was Oscar who landed the first telling blow in the form of a left hook to Mayorga’s face.  De La Hoya missed with a right, but came back with a neck-wrenching left hook to put Mayorga down on the canvas, and had the crowd of 13,000 screaming fans on their feet.  While the excited masses of Oscar fans did not want to get back to their seats, Mayorga was still on his, staring up at the Golden Boy who was still standing over his fallen opponent like Ali over Liston, enjoying the moment of sweet revenge.  Mayorga easily beat the count, and using their cheers, the crowd pleaded with Oscar to once and for all put an end to El Matador’s brashness and insults.  However, Mayorga did not give up, and continued throwing his wild shots, but the Golden Boy could not miss with his crushing left hooks.

Any thought of ring rust went out the window in the second round when Oscar came out to land more left hooks upstairs once again exciting the De La Hoya crowd.  The pin point accuracy of his punches could not miss and landed flush on Mayorga’s face in the form of head-snapping hooks and crosses.

Mayorga started the third round boxing more, throwing out left jabs in order to attempt his wild rights, but De La Hoya’s jabs neutralized Mayorga’s attack.  Both fighters went to the body about a minute into the third frame.  However, it was De La Hoya who went upstairs first to land a monstrous right uppercut followed by a left hook to the side of El Matador’s face before Mayorga could land any of his wild punches.  Mayorga answered back with an uppercut of his own followed by more wild rights that found their target, but De La Hoya countered with his amazing left hook upstairs to keep Mayorga humble.

In the first minute of round four, De La Hoya got the better of the exchanges by landing a left and right hook to the head of Mayorga.  El Matador went to the body in the middle of the round, but using his superior left hook, De La Hoya decided to follow with the punch that had worked so well throughout the previous rounds, and cracked Mayorga’s ribs inflicting more damage to the trash talker.

Mayorga was too wild with his punches in the opening moments of round five, only landing one hook of a six punch combination to De La Hoya’s head.  Oscar tried to counter, and that is when the two butted heads.  After referee Jay Nady checked both fighters for cuts, and with Mayorga evidently annoyed at the accidental blow, a toe to toe battle ensued with Mayorga against the ropes fighting off a busier Golden Boy barrage.  Since it worked earlier in the previous rounds, De La Hoya kept his opponent along the ropes trapping him along each side of the ring to land his crushing hooks to Mayorga’s head and body.  With seconds left in the round five, Mayorga turned the tables on De La Hoya, but instead of attempting to land anything that the judges could actually score in favor of El Matador, Mayorga decided to repeatedly hit De La Hoya on the back of the head until the bell and finally Nady separated them.

The pace slowed slightly in the beginning of round six, but once De La Hoya positioned Mayorga just where he wanted him, the fight was on its way to being finished.  De La Hoya used his expertise and power to land a huge body attack followed shortly by monstrous lefts hooks and straight rights to Mayoga’s head once again forcing El Matador against the ropes.  Oscar kept his fierce leather coming until Mayorga was finally down on his knees using the bottom ropes to keep him from becoming horizontal.  Mayorga got up at the count of eight, and De La Hoya made sure there would not be a round seven.  When Jay Nady allowed the fight to continue, it was as though Oscar went back to his personal archives, and brought out the 11th round of his fight with Vargas.  Before Mayorga could get away from the ropes, De La Hoya trapped El Matador against them, and started throwing head snapping punches that did not quit until Mayorga was all but out on his feet.  At 1:25 in round six, Nady finally stepped in to save El Matador from the Golden Boy’s onslaught, and in turn, gave De La Hoya his ninth title in six different weight divisions. 

While Mayorga conceded afterwards that De La Hoya was an extremely hard puncher, the Golden Boy said that it was, in fact, Mayorga’s insults to his wife and family that motivated him to seriously beat Mayorga, and capture his WBC Junior Middleweight Title.  De La Hoya improves his impressive record to 38-4 (30 KO’s), while Mayorga drops to 28-6-1 (23 KO’s).

Kassim Ouma Escapes a First Round Scare to Defeat Rubio by Split Decision

A quick right by the hard hitting Marco Antonio Rubio in the first round wobbled The Dream back against the ropes, but it was another Rubio right hand seconds later that put Ouma down on his seat.  Ouma escaped a first round scare, and battled back throughout the remaining rounds throwing hard shots behind his jab to land flush against Rubio’s head.  Both fighters stayed active throughout the bout, fighting in close, and tossing out crushing hooks upstairs to land on at will.  It was only because their power had lost some steam that neither fighter went down from the amount of punches they were each absorbing.  The championship rounds was fought more in spurts with Ouma and Rubio throwing two-punch combinations, ducking an inevitable combination of counterpunches, and then clinching each other until referee Joe Cortez broke them apart.  When the judges had their say one judge had it 114-113 for Rubio, but was overruled when the other two had it 117-110 and 116-111 for Ouma.  The Dream keeps his NABO Junior Middleweight Title and improves his record to 24-2-1 (15 KO’s), while Rubio falls to 32-3-1 (29 KO’s).

Joan Guzman Shuts Out Javier Jauregui

With “Little Tyson” throwing and landing 50% more punches than Jauregui throughout their ten round battle, the result was all but in the bag for Guzman as soon as the final bell sounded.  Guzman fought brilliantly against the former IBF Lightweight champion, and used his younger legs and superior boxing ability to take Jauregui the distance to win virtually every round on each of the judges scorecards.  Guzman improves to 25-0 (17 KO’s), while Jauregui drops to 51-13-2 (35 KO’s).

Jorge Paez Jr. Toys with Lowell Brownfield to Win by Unanimous Decision

Even though Paez Jr. won with scores of 40-36 (twice), and 39-37, Brownfield would not quit throwing punches, even snapping the head of the quicker and more elusive Paez Jr. throughout their four round battle.  Paez relied on his superior speed and technical skill to land his own punches more frequently, but was unable to floor the game Brownfield with his impressive power.  Paez Jr. goes the distance for the first time as a pro, but stays undefeated with a record of 9-0 (8 KO’s), while Brownfield loses his first with a record of 7-1 (2 KO’s).

In other fights:

The promising junior welterweight Rock Allen kept his perfect record in tact when he shut out Juan Hernandez with scores of 60-54 on all three judges’ scorecards.  Allen improves to 7-0 (5 KO’s), while Hernandez drops to 2-2.

122-pounder Jonathan Oquendo defeated Torrence Daniels with scores of 79-73 and 78-74 (twice), to keep his record clean at 9-0 (5 KO’s), while Daniels drops to 5-2-1 (2 KO’s).

Referee Joe Cortez stepped in to save the previously undefeated featherweight Aaron Garcia at 2:14 in Round 3 from Saul Ochoa’s continuing attack.  Ochoa improves to 4-2-1 (2 KO’s), while Garcia gets his first blemish with a record of 7-1 (2 KO’s).

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