In a sellout crowd of 16,268 at the MGM Grand hotel that was billed
as ‘Redemption’, Sugar Shane Mosley earned a
unanimous decision over Oscar De La Hoya for the
second time and won the WBC and WBA 154-pound titles.
The decision left De La Hoya outraged, while Mosley
celebrated the rebirth of a career.
"I thought I won by one or two
rounds," Mosley said. "He gave me a lot of
movement. I knew I hurt him.” De La Hoya said he
planned to hire several lawyers on Monday to
investigate the decision. "I'm not doing this
because I'm a sore loser. I'm doing this for the sport
of boxing." Said De La Hoya. HBO's broadcast team
also saw De La Hoya as the victor. Marc Ratner,
director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, said the
results were not out of line. "It happened in the
(Felix) Trinidad fight and it happened here," De
La Hoya said. "I thought I won the fight. I
didn't even think it was close." Said De La Hoya,
who vowed before the bout to retire if he lost a
second time to Mosley. "I'm not sure what will
happen." De La Hoya said.
De La Hoya was guaranteed $17 million, though he agreed to pay
Mosley $500,000 of that if he lost. "We were
never concerned in the corner," De La Hoya's
trainer, Floyd Mayweather, said. "We never even
thought of losing. It never crossed our minds."
There were questions about Mosley's power at 154
pounds.
Punch stats showed De La Hoya landed 221 punches to 127 for Mosley,
though most of Mosley's punches were power punches
while De La Hoya's were jabs. De La Hoya record fell
to 39-3, 29 KO’s while Mosley raised his record to
39-2,35 KO’s.
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