It’s Too Bad for Oscar They Weren’t Judges

I was sorry your coverage of the Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley fight didn’t reflect what I and all my friends saw: De La Hoya outjabbing, outworking and outscoring a frustrated-looking Mosley. Sugar Shane did come on down the stretch.

But the proof of how wrong the decision went was there in the Mosley corner at the end of the fight. Heads held low, defeated. Until the gift decision, and then every face showed stunned surprise. Mosley knew he was a beaten fighter.

As for De La Hoya, if this was indeed his last fight, he went out a champion. One of the great fighters of this era. Too bad the judges didn’t let him go out with the victory he earned.

Tim Bartell

West Hollywood

*

Boy, did we De La Hoya fans have our guard down for this one! While Oscar’s controversial loss to Trinidad took our wind, the inexplicable unanimous decision in favor of Mosley is a candidate for the greatest sucker punch of all time, albeit thrown by three misinformed judges at defenseless but justifiably, increasingly doubting boxing fans.

Ruben A. Vassolo

Hollywood

*

I have been a fight fan for 30 years. During that time I have seen a lot of fight decisions that were suspect and/or downright ludicrous. This is the last straw. If I ever knew anything about boxing, Shane Mosley lost this fight. The decision in this fight is an insult to even the most rank amateur boxing fan. Shame on all those involved.

David Manos

Lancaster

*

OK, I am in the minority (again). To me, De La Hoya won the fight handily. To say that Shane “took” the championship from Oscar is a stretch I cannot reach. The judges saw it that way and so be it.

However, none of us should have to accept Bill Plaschke’s distorted, nonsensical, self-serving illogic. He babbles, “Indeed, De La Hoya won the battle of punches, but boxing is a battle of rounds, and De La Hoya didn’t spread the pain like Mosley.”

Huh? The statistics, round by round, were overwhelmingly in favor of De La Hoya! Every single category. Mosley sleepwalked through the first seven rounds, and when his father finally got him to participate in the fight, De La Hoya stayed with him. He outjabbed, outhit, out-power-punched, out-defended. What am I missing?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The real shame is that Plaschke gets a newspaper with which to express his. That seems a bigger injustice than anything that happened in the ring.

Michael Valente

San Clemente

*

HBO has a problem in that its boxing analyst, George Foreman, knows little or nothing about boxing skills, as his expertise was to use his awesome punching power to knock his opponent senseless. I realize HBO has only one Golden Boy in Oscar, but to allow George to rant and rave about conspiracies is Jerry Springer stuff.

Total punch-stat numbers do not determine a victor. If so, Pernell Whitaker would have won over Oscar in 1997 as he had dominant stats in that fight. But Oscar took the fight to Pernell in the last four rounds and got the decision, as did Mosley in both fights with Oscar.

Maybe it is time for Oscar to retrieve his gold-lined sombrero and guitar and resume his musical career. Maybe he can do a remake of the Ray Charles classic “Crying Time.”

By the way, I scored the fight 115-114 for Oscar.

Ken Craig

Los Angeles

*

Hey Oscar, want some cheese to go with your whine? You might want to invite Bob Arum to join you. Do us a favor and retire like you promised if you lost and, yes, Oscar, you did lose. You’re in a man’s sport so take it like a man.

Oh yeah: I’m filing a protest because I think Carolina cheated in its victory over Tampa Bay.

Rick Espinosa

Long Beach

*

Both Oscar and Arum are acting like fools. This fight was close enough to go either way. Why the tears? These two guys are starting to make Don King look good.

Robert Estevez

Bellflower

*

Maybe I was seeing things, but since when did French ice-skating judges start scoring boxing matches?

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills