De La Hoya Misses The Mark In Comparing Mayweather Loss to Haney v Lomachenko
Opinions continue to roll in from boxing dignitaries following Devin “The Dream” Haney’s (30-0, 15 KOs) May 20 unanimous decision victory over Vasyl “Loma” Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KOs) to retain the undisputed lightweight champion. The latest to chime-in comes from Hall of Famer and promoter Oscar De La Hoya, who made the following post on social media:
THEN AND NOW
For those who don’t remember, in May 2007, Oscar De La Hoya defended the WBC junior middleweight strap against Floyd Mayweather. At the time, Mayweather was the reigning WBC welterweight champion.
De La Hoya was very competitive, using his left jab to set the tone and gave Mayweather some difficulty in the early rounds. But at the midway mark, Mayweather adjusted and took control of the action, landing combinations on De La Hoya. While the official verdict was a split decision in favor of Mayweather, the overwhelming consensus, then and now, is that Mayweather did more than enough to earn the win. Sixteen years later, there has been no controversy about what occurred that evening in the ring.
The recent fight between Haney and Lomachenko was nip-and-tuck throughout. While the 116-112 score for Haney was viewed as too wide by many fans who have watched the fight, the other scores of 115-113 for the lightweight champion were more than sensible. It was a fight that could’ve gone either way.
UNFAIR AND UNWARRANTED COMPARISON
There are others in the boxing community who felt Loma deserved the nod over Haney. But this is the problem with De La Hoya’s viewpoint. Haney – Lomachenko was a closer and more competitive contest than De La Hoya – Mayweather.
For De La Hoya to equate that battle to his loss to Floyd Mayweather was an apples-to-orange comparison. In this instance, De La Hoya is arguably guilty of being reckless with his rhetoric and should know better.
