He’s at a Real Loss to Describe It

It was a fight so close, a decision so controversial, with ramifications so large, we needed another opinion.

So the boss brought one in.

Four days after Felix Trinidad won a majority decision over Oscar De La Hoya for the welterweight championship, an expert was escorted to the sixth floor of The Times’ building Wednesday to watch a tape of the fight with those who had critiqued it.

I figured Trinidad won, most of my co-workers figured De La Hoya had won, this would be a good time to reflect and settle.

Or so I thought.

Until the boss introduced the expert.

Guy by the name of Oscar De La Hoya.

“This is the seventh time I’ve seen this,” he said, settling into a leather chair in front of a movie screen in an executive meeting room.

The rest of us were assigned the cheap seats.

“By the time I watch it again, I’ll give myself the whole fight,” he added with a smile.

He was not alone.

Just before the video began, the boss announced he also had judged De La Hoya to be the winner.

After the video ended, a cafeteria cashier threw in his roll of pennies.

“De La Hoya won it,” the man said. “You know he won it.”

The boxer showed dignity and class in coming here to analyze the fight, something few pro athletes would even dream of doing. It was like John Elway stopping by his local newspaper on the Wednesday after the Super Bowl to watch a replay.

But several times Wednesday afternoon, there was a temptation to jump on the building intercom and announce, “We are sorry to pass along the unfortunate news that Oscar De La Hoya lost!”

As if anybody could have heard it over the rhetoric.

Looking spiffy in a light pullover and slacks--or at least as spiffy as a guy with a purple left eye can look--De La Hoya came out fighting.

Roll tape.

First round.

“Are you telling me he won that round? He didn’t touch me! He didn’t land a punch!”

Second round.

“Every single punch he throws, they’re hitting my gloves. Every single punch.”

Third round.

“He never landed a solid, solid punch.”

At this point in the fight, each of the judges had given at least one round to Trinidad, and one judge had given him two.

It was enough to make promoter Bob Arum, sitting next to De La Hoya, interrupt.

“In fights like these, dirty deeds are done in the beginning,” he said.

Throughout the two-hour session, Arum offered similar between-rounds commentary, sort of like a gray-haired ring card girl.

Most of his insight implied that the fight was fixed.

Given that everybody could see Don King’s chilling mug in the Las Vegas audience throughout the tape, nobody in the room dared disagree.

Roll tape.

Fourth round, when Trinidad starts to fight back.

“OK, I gave him this round,” De La Hoya said, referring to his own scorecard.

Fifth round, which ends with a picture of father Joel cheering.

“See, even Papa Joel was happy. I’ve never seen him that way.”

Sixth round, when Trinidad’s eye is swelling while his nose keeps bleeding.

“When you see the opponent hurting, that builds confidence. I felt he was weakening. It’s really not an even match.”

But it became one.

You could see it on the screen, where De La Hoya increasingly did more dancing then punching.

And you could see it in his chair. Where earlier he had been relaxed and laughing, at the start of the seventh round he sat up straight and stared intently at the tape.

Both on the screen and off, he had suddenly been put on the defensive.

Why didn’t you go for the kill in the sixth round, Oscar?

“I wasn’t thinking that way.”

Why didn’t you stop dancing and finish him off?

“I would, if I had trained to brawl with him. But that wasn’t the plan. I trained for three months to box just like that. Even now, I’m happy. We’re all happy.”

Roll tape.

Seventh round.

He shakes his head in disbelief that anyone would think he is losing.

Eighth round.

He looks at Arum and sighs.

Ninth round, De La Hoya’s last round victory on some cards.

He obviously thinks the fight is over.

“To be nice, let’s call it 7-2.”

Tenth round.

Trinidad is fighting back, De La Hoya is staring at the screen even more intently, but he confirms that he indeed thought it was over.

“I was already celebrating after the 10th round. I thought the fight was in the bag.”

Eleventh round.

While Trinidad is now dominating on the screen, De La Hoya is quietly acknowledging weakness from the leather chair.

“I was a bit winded,” he said. “But not much.”

Twelfth round.

De La Hoya watches Trinidad chase him around the ring, listens to the announcers jab his reputation, then fights back yet again.

“I’m thinking, I’m going to win the fight. I’ve got eight rounds in the bag. I’ve won!”

Judging from the tape, he did.

It was shut off right after it showed Trinidad meeting De La Hoya in the middle of the ring and allegedly conceding the fight to him.

It was shut off before Trinidad was announced as the winner, leaping into his handlers’ arms in surprise, with De La Hoya stunned into frozen silence while confetti fell across him like dust on a statue.

Little wonder that he still doesn’t believe the decision.

“If I lost, I would say I lost, like a champion, like a man,” De La Hoya said. “But I did not lose.”

Nonetheless, he said he is not taking any chances in the yet-to-be-arranged rematch.

“I wanted to box, and it was a mistake. . . . This time I have to brawl,” he said. “This time there is no choice.”

Not because he lost, of course. But because somebody thought he lost.

“You mean to tell me he beat me in seven rounds to win the fight?” he said. “I didn’t see it.”

If only the decisiveness shown on the sixth floor Wednesday had been apparent during the late rounds in the ring Saturday. That much is unanimous.

*

Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

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How They Scored It

A random sampling of how boxing writers around the country scored the Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad fight:

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Writer, Paper Oscar Felix Steve Springer, Los Angeles Times 115 113 Randy Harvey, Los Angeles Times 113 115 Bernard Fernandez, Philadelphia Daily News 116 112 Jay Searcy, Philadelphia Inquirer 117 110 Ed Schuyler, Associated Press 115 113 Ricardo Jimenez, La Opinion 115 113 Royce Feour, Las Vegas Review-Journal 115 113 Mike Hirsley, Chicago Tribune 114 115 Michael Katz, New York Daily News 114 114 Mark Kriegel, New York Daily News 115 113 Greg Logan, New York Newsday 115 113 Ron Borges, Boston Globe 115 113 Tim Smith, New York Times 115 113 Wallace Matthews, New York Post 115 113 Jerry Izenberg, Newark Star-Ledger 115 113 John Whisler, San Antonio Express-News 115 113 Doug Krikorian, Long Beach Independent 113 115

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TOTALS: De La Hoya 13; Trinidad 3; Draw 1