By TIM DAHLBERG

LAS VEGAS (AP) - So, Oscar De La Hoya wants an investigation of this whole nasty mess made by three guys sitting at ringside.

Not for himself, the Golden Boy insists, but for the good of boxing.

This begs the obvious question. Just what good is De La Hoya doing for the sport of boxing by insinuating that the judges who scored Saturday night's fight for Shane Mosley were corrupt, blind or merely incompetent?

No good at all, of course. And by the time De La Hoya sits down in his office to call his high-priced lawyers and make a further mockery of the whole idea, maybe he'll have calmed down enough to realize he should keep his mouth shut.

Boxing doesn't need this, not after enduring the tiresome antics of Mike Tyson for so long, and not after a fight between two classy boxers who draw nothing but positive attention to the sport.


Boxing surely doesn't need this from someone who has become rich beyond belief in the ring and gotten a few charitable decisions himself.

The simple truth is that, while boxing may have a lot of problems, crooked judging in this fight wasn't one of them.

"These are honest men and they scored the fight the way they did. To me, there is no controversy," said Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission. "It's a close fight that could have gone either way. This is the way the judges saw it. If it went the other way, Mosley's camp would have been the ones protesting."

Ratner is right, and maybe the people screaming the Golden Boy got robbed should listen. Say what you want about the sport, but Ratner stands tall as its beacon of integrity.

Long before De La Hoya and Mosley entered the ring, Ratner figured it would be a close fight with a lot of rounds that would be tough to call. That's what happened the first time they met, and there was no reason to think the rematch would be any different.

That's why Ratner went outside Nevada to look for top judges. He brought in Anek Hongtongkam from Thailand and Stanley Christodoulou of South Africa, both respected judges. The third judge was Duane Ford, a Las Vegan who has judged some 140 title fights with distinction.

All three judges saw the fight the same way, almost round for round. Two gave Mosley the last four rounds, while Ford gave him the last five. The final score on all three cards was 115-113.

Agree with them or not, judging fights is a subjective business. Few would argue that it wasn't a close fight, and the scoring certainly reflected that. Mosley had a slight - very slight - edge on the scorecards, but it was enough to win.

Those are the rules in boxing. If a fight goes to a decision, judges vote on who wins. It's been that way for the better part of a century now, and De La Hoya certainly knew the rules when he stepped into the ring.

Sure, ringside punching statistics showed De La Hoya with a clear edge in punches landed. But what do those statistics mean and how accurate are they? Two humans are scoring those blows as they see them, just as the judges are scoring the fight as they see it. When De La Hoya and Mosley fought in frenzied flurries it would be impossible for anyone to tally what scored and what didn't.

Except if they watched on HBO's pay-per-view telecast, that is. There, announcers Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and George Foreman spent the night telling viewers how De La Hoya was dominating this fight. Anyone watching on TV would have had to watch with the sound turned off to think Mosley might have won.

HBO, of course, has a vested interest in De La Hoya. He's the biggest pay-per-view attraction the network has, and together they've profited richly over the years. A De La Hoya win would be much better for business than a victory by Mosley, who has yet to prove he can sell tickets or boost ratings.

That's one reason why Mosley's father, Jack, was urging his son to do something dramatic in the late rounds. Jack Mosley saw a conspiracy, too, with a town and a network against his fighter.

Yes, De La Hoya was disappointed, and bitterly so. He thought he won the fight, and you'll never convince him otherwise.

But the sight of him standing with a big bandage over the cut near his right eye at the postfight news conference and claiming there was something nefarious going on was a pathetic one indeed for such a proud warrior.

"You're a sore loser," someone yelled.

Perhaps De La Hoya has forgotten getting the benefit of an 11-10 decision over Hong Song-Sik of South Korea in the semifinals of the 1992 Olympics that allowed him to go on and win the gold medal that helped make him rich and famous. Maybe he can't remember the decision in a fight against Pernell Whitaker that many thought Whitaker won.

De La Hoya certainly wasn't calling for any investigations then.

"I'm not doing this because I'm a sore loser," De La Hoya said. "I'm doing this for the sport of boxing."

Do something else for the sport of boxing, Oscar. Give this up before it gets even sillier than it already is.

Otherwise, the Golden Boy may start looking more like the Golden Baby.

---

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org.

CtheUncanny said:

Are you going to make him?

this fight turned out to be more contreversial than I expected...

pejman said:

DLH whipped Mosley's ass...

CompuBox: Oscar outlanded Shane in eleven of the twelve rounds!

By Bob Cannobio -- CompuBox

On Saturday night, Oscar De La Hoya landed 221 of 616 total punches (36%) to 127 of 496 (26%) for Shane Mosley. De La Hoya averaged 10 more punches thrown per round. Oscar's statistical edge was bolstered by his jab. He landed 106 of 296 jabs (36%) to just 33 of 268 (12%) for Mosley, who had outjabbed De La Hoya in their first meeting. This time Mosley dispensed with the jab and focused on landing the harder shots, many to Oscar’s body. Rounds 8-12 were won by Mosley on all cards except for the eighth on Stanley Christodoulou’s tally. However, despite Shane’s second half rally, he outlanded Oscar in just one round, the ninth, 22-19. A breakdown of the power punches connected by round showed Oscar with a 7-3 edge, with 2 rounds even. Give Mosley the benefit of the doubt in the two even rounds and it’s still 7-5 De La Hoya in power connects by round.

"Boxing surely doesn't need this from someone who has become rich beyond belief in the ring and gotten a few charitable decisions himself."

MORE THAN A FEW.
But like most folks that think their shit don't stink,
when the shoe is on their foot, they seem to forget whut it was like for 'the other guy'.

It was a horrible decission (from all i've heard and read)
but like i said in another thread, there have been many and worse. Yep, but they do call him the 'golden boy'. I guess
it's tantrum time.

althom said:

You smartass. Yes i would send him an orgnote if he were on the org. I ain't afraid to do that.

IceNine said:

Sure, ringside punching statistics showed De La Hoya with a clear edge in punches landed. But what do those statistics mean and how accurate are they? Two humans are scoring those blows as they see them, just as the judges are scoring the fight as they see it. When De La Hoya and Mosley fought in frenzied flurries it would be impossible for anyone to tally what scored and what didn't.

Never heard of either one of them. all I'm going to say is, I just dont understand two grown men wanting to beat the shit out of each other, do they like getting phucked-up?

Paisley said:

you!! you!!!

sosgemini said:

:LOL: what?

CtheUncanny said:

Well, sounds like a rematch is in order... which means more money... So there ya go... Set up for another go around... If the money and sponsors are right... Ya know Budweiser and Nike, Adidas... all that stuff...