LAS VEGAS – Oscar De La Hoya ain’t pretty no more.
He’s beautiful.
There was nothing pretty about the way the Golden Boy beat Ike Quartey last night to retain not only the world welterweight title, but the title of best fighter in the world, pound-for-pound and punch-for-punch.
Throw in gutsiest, too.
The matchup with Quartey was a mismatch in almost every conceivable way.
Quartey was the more powerful fighter, the quicker fighter, the better defensive fighter, the more relaxed boxer.
If it came down to a test of skills, Quartey was the better man.
But De La Hoya was the braver man, by far, and that made all the difference.
With his nose leaking blood, his mouth seeping a constant stream of saliva and his left cheekbone swollen and purple, De La Hoya won the fight in a ferocious 60-second stretch of the 12th round.
With the fight a virtual tossup, De La Hoya dropped Quartey 10 seconds into the round with a perfect left hook to the jaw.
As he had when De La Hoya dropped him with the same punch in the sixth round, Quartey popped up and began flurrying back.
But De La Hoya, who displayed caution through most of the bout, backed Quartey into the ropes near his own corner and slammed home left hook after left hook, leaving Quartey limp.
And yet, there were still 2:00 to go in the fight and Quartey, who had also dropped De La Hoya with a hook in the electrifying sixth, still had the punching power to even things up.
If he wanted to.
Obviously, he didn’t want to. Quartey spent the final minutes of the fight following De La Hoya around the ring, grinning slightly as his last chance ticked away.
In the final round, where this fight was won, De La Hoya outpunched Quartey 41-18.
Somehow, one judge – Larry O’Connell of England – scored Quartey a 115-114 winner, but the other two, John Keane of England and Ken Morita of Japan, got it right, scoring the fight for De La Hoya, 116-113 and 116-112, respectively.
The Post had De La Hoya a 115-112 winner.
“I was a little wary of his punching power,” De La Hoya (30-0) said. “This guy is a very powerful hitter, a very tough, worthy opponent. I think I underestimated his boxing ability.”
Perhaps, but he did not overestimate Quartey’s courage. When crunch time came, De La Hoya was clearly the fighter who wanted it more.
The De La Hoya-Quartey fight was probably the most anticipated non-heavyweight matchup since Leonard-Hagler in 1987.
Between them, the fighters had 63 wins, no losses, a draw and 53 KOs. They had engaged in 25 bouts designated as “title fights” (17 for De La Hoya, eight for Quartey) by various organizations.
And unlike the bouts between De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez, which were of real interest only to Mexican nationals and Mexican-Americans, Quartey was the first challenger given a legitimate shot to knock off the Golden Boy.
Although the odds favoring Oscar held at 7-2 by fight time, even De La Hoya acknowledged the possibility that Quartey could derail his 29-fight winning streak.
But in spite of the explosive ending, this highly-anticipated matchup was a dud most of the way.
De La Hoya and Quartey were supposed to do exciting, explosive, exhilarating.
For all but two rounds, they merely did interesting.
“I don’t think it was a great fight,” De La Hoya said when asked if he would give Quartey a rematch. “There’s bigger and better fights out there. Oh, I’d fight him again anytime, but I think the public wants more exciting matchups than this. Sometimes he fought, sometimes he didn’t.”
Certainly, he didn’t fight nearly enough. As he had in his last fight, a draw with Jose Luis Lopez in October 1997, Quartey turned passive whenever he got hurt.
In fact, throughout much of the bout, both fighters were cautious, tentative, gun-shy, like two springs coiling and re-coiling but unwilling to cut loose.
And then, suddenly, in the opening seconds of round six, the fight began.
De La Hoya’s hook to the jaw dropped Quartey on the seat of his pants. He popped up almost immediately, and as Oscar moved in for the finisher, Quartey beat him to the punch with a short hook to the chin that sent De La Hoya down.
The two flailed away for the rest of the round, giving a hint of what the fight could have been and should have been.
The problem was, whenever Quartey got stung, he stopped fighting, covering up behind his gloves and his smile.
But by the 12th round, Quartey’s smile wasn’t fooling anyone anymore.
It was a smile not of amusement, but of fear. In the final two rounds he was outpunched, 55-20.
“You all know I won the fight,” said Quartey (34-1-1), who could not possibly have believed his own words. “But you know I couldn’t win a decision in Las Vegas.”
Not this decision, not in this fight, not against this opponent.
Going into the fight, De La Hoya’s nickname was Golden Boy.
It no longer seems applicable. How about Man of Steel?