Judges Agree: De La Hoya Gets Decision Over Molina : Boxing: Winner gets some useful lessons in grueling 12-round bout, looks ahead to Ruelas. Griffin upsets Toney in battle of light-heavyweights.

In a flawed but crowning performance, Oscar De La Hoya sidestepped the remaining doubters and dived head-first into a respected reigning champion, John John Molina, leaving the ring Saturday night with a unanimous-decision victory and the boxing world wanting more.

De La Hoya (17-0, 15 knockouts) retained his World Boxing Organization lightweight title before 6,272 at the MGM Grand Garden, surviving the tenacious Molina (36-4, 26 KOs) and some shaky middle rounds.

In an upset earlier in the evening, light-heavyweight Montell Griffin earned a majority-decision victory over former two-time champion James Toney.

De La Hoya made sure it wasn’t a sweep for the underdogs.

After dominating the first four rounds, and dropping Molina with a left hook in the opening round, De La Hoya might have expected a quick fight.

Hadn’t it always been that way? However, De La Hoya has not fought the likes of Molina, the reigning International Boxing Federation junior-lightweight champion.

“I should have boxed him more,” De La Hoya said. “I fought a very unintelligent fight. I won the early rounds, he won the middle, and I had to come back at the end. He has more experience against world championship competition.”

De La Hoya did show plenty of resolve. Having lost control of the fight in the middle rounds, he finished fast, taking the last two rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.

The judges had De La Hoya winning, 116-111, 117-110, 116-111.

CompuBox Inc. had De La Hoya landing 315 punches to Molina’s 201.

In the crowd, scribbling on his own scorecard, was IBF lightweight champion Rafael Ruelas, who now can expect to face De La Hoya here on May 6 in a battle of Los Angeles champions.

“It confirms what I’ve been saying,” Ruelas said. “He lacks the experience and doesn’t take the initiative. He lets guys fight their fight.

“You saw what happened. Molina is not a big puncher, but he did hurt him a couple of times. If I hit him with a big shot, he’s not just going to get hurt, he’s going down.”

While micro-analysis of De La Hoya’s victory may well be warranted, it was nevertheless a seminal achievement, a breakthrough fight against a top-notch opponent.

The kind of fight that prepares one for the likes of Rafael Ruelas.

“Rafael will be a tough fight,” De La Hoya said. “But he has bad balance. I think if I hit him with some of the same punches, he’ll go down.”

Molina went down in the first, after missing with a wild overhand right, but bounced up and kept to his game plan of wearing down De La Hoya with body shots.

Molina’s best round was the fifth, when he jarred De La Hoya with two rights.

De La Hoya survived, then won the 11th and 12th rounds, once sticking his tongue out at Molina’s corner.

“I was surprised he was able to take my punches,” Molina said.

The other surprise of the night came earlier, when Toney was rudely welcomed to the light-heavyweight division. Moving up in weight after losing his IBF super-middleweight title in a sluggish loss to Roy Jones last November, Toney was stunned again, this time by a relative unknown with only 14 previous fights.

Griffin, 24, relied on a persistent left hook and the wisdom of his corner, where 83-year-old veteran trainer Eddie Futch directed the show.

Moving to his right, Griffin kept his opponent off balance and stayed away from Toney’s famed counterpunch.

Or is that previously famed?

Griffin survived an early mistake, when Toney countered a right with a crossing right that jarred Griffin at 2:40 of the third round.

But Griffin recovered and continued his strategy of sticking close to Toney and tying him up in the corner.

“When he had me hurt, the way I survived is, I’m a low-keyed person,” Griffin said. “I stayed back until I got my legs back. Toney needs punching room. And I took that punching room away from him.”

Griffin’s best round was the seventh, when he scored a left to Toney’s chin, knocking him back into the ropes.

Toney, who has lost consecutive fights after 46 previous bouts without a loss, did not take defeat well.

“I thought I won the fight,” Toney said. “It was a bad decision. I’ll be back. I beat the guy.”