Oscar Makes the Cut

Not bad, for a singer.

Showing none of the rust that might be expected after a nine-month hiatus to launch a music career and all of fury and determination he promised, Oscar De La Hoya had it all Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena--speed, movement, toughness, aggressiveness, defensive skills and a solid right hand--in a fifth-round technical knockout over Arturo Gatti.

But don’t order a new championship belt just yet.

Keep in mind that De La Hoya beat a man who entered the ring as an 8-1 underdog, a human punching bag.

There should be no doubt that De La Hoya has put aside his flirtation with retirement and refocused on the ring. There is no question that De La Hoya looked as good as ever, if not better, under the guidance of his new trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr.

Whether De La Hoya has improved enough to beat Felix Trinidad or Shane Mosley, both of whom have beaten him, remains to be seen.

Said De La Hoya after the fight, “I’m not even close to being as good as I can be. This was just the start. There is still a lot that needs to be worked on.”

There seemed little doubt that De La Hoya would have a short night of work after he hit Gatti with a left uppercut following a vicious combination with 19 seconds remaining in the first round.

Gatti went to his knees, his head buried in the canvas.

He struggled to his feet, struggled through the rest of the round and struggled to his corner, a large cut evident under his right eye.

“When he got cut right away,” said Gatti’s trainer, Hector Roca, “that changed the fight.”

That’s disputable.

Although Gatti came back to give the crowd of 12,692 its money’s worth, he didn’t win a round on any of the judges’ scorecards.

“I never hit him flush,” Gatti admitted. “I expected him to be slower. He really surprised me with his hand speed. I do believe I belong in the same ring with him. He just had faster hands than I did.”

And a bigger frame.

De La Hoya (33-2, 27 knockouts), who came in at 147 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in, was at 152 at fight time. Gatti (33-5), who weighed 146 Friday, refused to be weighed again before the fight. He is still sensitive about a bout last year in which he put on 20 pounds before fight time. Gatti could have come in as a heavyweight Saturday and it wouldn’t have made a difference.

In the second round, De La Hoya connected on 55 of 76 punches.

In the third round, the cut on Gatti’s eye had gotten bad enough to cause the round to be temporarily halted while the ringside physician examined it.

In the fourth round, De La Hoya, confident of victory, shifted to a defensive stance, practicing rolling his shoulder as Mayweather has taught him to make him more elusive.

“I was doing a lot of different things,” De La Hoya said, “like using the jab, and an upper body move. I used the right more tonight.”

By the fifth round, there seemed little point in going on and causing more damage to the battered Gatti.

When De La Hoya began peppering the Canadian-born fighter with vicious combinations, Gatti’s manager, Pat Lynch, decided his fighter had had enough and hurled a towel into the ring. Referee Jay Nady instantly acknowledged it, ending the fight at the 1:16 mark.

Gatti did not protest.

“Gatti is a tough guy and can take a punch,” De La Hoya said. “He is a strong kid.”

In that last round, De La Hoya connected on 24 of 26 power punches.

“If we didn’t stop it, he would have gotten killed,” Roca said. “He wouldn’t stop it himself.”

Said Gatti: “In the last round, he hit me to the body and then came back with a lot of punches. However, I still felt good. I could have kept going.

“I caught him with a left hook [earlier in the fight], but I did not have an opportunity to follow up with a knee.”

That was a joke. It was also about the only way Gatti could have won.

The numbers told it all. De La Hoya connected on 62% of his punches to 28% for Gatti. De La Hoya connected on 195 punches, Gatti 87.

Gatti was taken to a nearby hospital for stitches, but was not believed to be seriously hurt.

That certainly seemed to be the case when he was told that he would be transported in a limousine.

Replied Gatti, “Do I get to keep it for the night?”

As for De La Hoya, he’ll take a short break and then go back to his grueling regimen under Mayweather as he prepares for his next fight, June 9, his first try at 154 pounds as he takes on World Boxing Council champion Javier Castillejo. A victory would give De La Hoya titles in five weight divisions.

Mayweather says the key to De La Hoya’s continued growth as a fighter is to get him out of the style he employed under the tutelage of Robert Alcazar and other previous trainers.

“Before, he fought like a robot,” Mayweather said. “He fought stiff.”

That has apparently changed with Mayweather at the controls.

*

In the semi-main event, Vassiliy Jirov, who has been campaigning for a fight against light-heavyweight champion Roy Jones, improved his appeal by scoring a quick and dramatic victory in defense of his International Boxing Federation cruiserweight title.

Jirov (28-0, 26 knockouts) knocked out Terry McGroom 1:22 into the fight with a solid body shot that left McGroom (19-3-2) crumpled in the corner, unable to get up.

Oba Carr’s claim that he is one of the top welterweights in the world was seriously damaged when he was knocked out at 2:46 of the sixth round of a scheduled 10-rounder by 35-year-old Rafael Pineda (35-3, 29).

It was the third time Carr (52-4-1) had been down in the round.

Two members of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team--junior-welterweight Ricardo Williams and junior-bantamweight Jose Navarro--improved to 2-0 as professionals, both winning by decision. Williams beat Joey Bullock (4-1), and Navarro defeated Antonio Perez (5-5-1).