Oscar de la Hoya vs. Ricardo Mayorga

This Saturday Night, May 6, Oscar de la Hoya (37-4/29kos) will battle with Nicaraguan toughman Ricardo Mayorga (28-5/23) in a WBC super welterweight (154 pound limit) championship bout.

This is an interesting match up because the outcome depends on which de la Hoya shows up to fight. Oscar should win handily with his skill and speed, but Oscar doesn’t always use his skill and his speed in the boxing ring.

Ricardo Maryorga is a very rough and tumble fighter, and he knows that fighting an intelligent Oscar doesn’t bode well for his chances. So, his strategy...to get under Oscar’s skin and hope Oscar takes the bait. If he does, Oscar will want to trade punches with the wild punching Mayorga.

After his skilled boxing victory over Julio Caesar Chavez, the Golden Boy Oscar was goaded into a slugfest in their second fight after Chavez questioned his manliness. After a sensation boxing exposition of skill and speed over Felix Trinidad, of which Oscar was robbed and criticized for being overly tactical, Oscar showed up for his next fight against Shane Mosely as a plodding slugger and was out-boxed and out-hustled. After another tactical fight with Mosley in which Oscar was robbed once again, the plodding Oscar returned once again in his next fight and slugged out a close decision victory against a full fledged Middleweight champion Felix Sturum.

Logically, Oscar should win this fight handily. But if Mayorga really did get under Oscar’s skin during the press events leading up to this fight, Oscar may opt to trade punches with Mayorga. For the toughman from Nicaragua, this would be his best chance to land a haymaker.

Note:

The way the Mighty Moe sees it, Fernando Vargas is a much bigger, stronger and better boxer than Ricardo Mayorga, and was given a sound beating by the Golden Boy.