It’s true that the absence or the presence of a certain trainer, a great trainer, can make all the difference when it comes to the outcome of a big fight. Ali had Angelo Dundee, for example, and Dundee more than swayed the outcome of some of Ali’s pivotal bouts.
Teddy Atlas is another example, with Atlas all but doing the fighting for his charge, Michael Moorer himself, or at least sitting on the corner stool and threatening to do so; this serving Moorer with the kick he needed to go on and closely defeat Evander Holyfield.
And there are many more examples of the trainer/corner man working his magic to such an extent that his guy walked away victorious. But Oscar De La Hoya, in his massive “The World Awaits” super fight with Floyd Mayweather, had the wrong man in his corner on the night, and he failed to get the win as a result.
This is the way De La Hoya told it during a recent interview on numerous subjects covered on the Club Shay Shay podcast (De La Hoya even opened up on those infamous lingerie photos). De La Hoya – who had the great Freddie Roach in his corner for the “Money” fight – said on the podcast that if he’d had Floyd Mayweather Senior working with him, he “would’ve knocked him (Mayweather Jr] out.”
Mayweather and De La Hoya worked well together for a few big fights, but not the massive one that went down in May of 2007. Oscar says that if the pair had been together on the night, it would have made all the difference.
“Knock him out. I would’ve knocked him out. Really,” De La Hoya said when asked how it would have been if he’d had Mayweather Senior working his corner that night. “If I was one year younger and had Senior in my corner, I would’ve knocked him out. Absolutely. The key to that style, the Philly Shell, is a jab. It opens up all the doors. When my jab failed me, it was over. I knew it in my heart, in my head.”
Did De La Hoya’s jab fail him in the Mayweather fight, or was it his stamina? De La Hoya did stop using his jab in the later rounds, but some put this down to the fatigue Oscar often found himself battling late on in a fight during his career. Either way, whether he was tired or stopped believing in his jab, how would Mayweather Senior have helped De La Hoya on the night? Just how would De La Hoya have knocked Mayweather out?
The fight was close, no doubt – with some fans on the night feeling it was a draw – and maybe, maybe, Mayweather Senior could have pushed De La Hoya, maybe he could have dragged something more out of him, and maybe the result would have been different. But it’s almost certain the majority of fans will not agree with De La Hoya when he says he would’ve KO’d Mayweather, who is arguably the greatest defensive fighter in history.
Interestingly, however, Freddie Roach, when giving an interview some time after the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight, said he wished he had slapped De La Hoya in the corner, this when De La Hoya was beginning to fade and not use his jab. But Roach decided against it. How would the sting and the humiliation of being slapped in the corner (Chris Eubank style, with Ronnie Woods doing the slapping, as British fight fans will no doubt remember) have affected De La Hoya, and might it have seen him fight hard enough to edge Mayweather on points?
Debatable stuff, indeed!
