Cointry -- Oscar de la Hoya has a track record of fading in the late rounds. He gains lead in the early rounds only to lose it as fight ends In his bout with Floyd Mayweather jr., he was winning on points early in the fight with his offense but has a diminished activity later so that Floyd eventually won the fight. But why did Oscar really fades in the later rounds? No one has really gave a concrete answer. If there is one, his opponent can view this as a weakness and exploit it to his advantage to win the fight. But there is none.
Others say it was his stamina. Oscar puts too much intensity in his fight that he ran out of gas later. Somehow it is true. See how his mouthpiece protrudes when he attacks Mayweather jr. But every boxer should know, even the aspiring one, how to control his intensity. Even Oscar knew it. In his bout with Steve Forbes, one of his game plan is to learn how to relax. Yes he did relax but still fades in the later rounds.
It could not be fatigue. Oscar has a good training ethics. Oscar trains hard in every fight. He always says it before a fight. But he still fades.
Boxers are too secretive about the injuries they sustained on the ring. Which is logical because it is a handicap to a fight. There was one boxer who noticed that his vision is getting blurred in his right eye. It could be the punches it has absorbed in his last fight. But he didn't tell it to anyone even to his trainer. Then he begins to lose his fights. And finally lose his sight.
Why did he fade? Oscar himself provided an answer to this mystery. He was thinking of retiring in boxing so he published his book entitled "American Son". In his book, the Golden Boy revealed that in his eighth professional fight when he was facing Troy Dorsey, “who made a grunting sound that could be heard throughout the arena," every time he threw a punch, De La Hoya gave Dorsey a left hook that landed squarely on Dorsey’s right eyebrow, splitting it into open, blood spewing, knocking Dorsey out in the first round of an under card in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The punch injured the ligament in De La Hoya’s left hand, however.
“Every time, I flicked my left wrist, the pain shot through me. What was weird was that there was no pain when I used that left hand to throw a punch I called “my 45" because it came at a 45-degree angle, somewhere between a hook and an uppercut. It had something to do with the angle of my arm. All I knew in that position, my left hand could still be effective."
Adding to the injury of his left hand is the rotor cuff on his left shoulder. Most boxers who suffer this injury feel the pain when throwing a jab so it lost its power on the way. But nevertheless they can still throw a hook normally.
Bone injuries can still heal on a younger person but can recur again when subjected to stress.
That somehow answer the question why Oscar de La hoya fades in the later rounds. He throws some hard punches in the early rounds, hurts his hand and shoulder because of the recurring injuries and lose his stinging left jabs. But still he is dangerous because he still have that powerful left hook.
In his last fight, with Forbes, the signs that Oscar began to fade is when instead of jabbing the head he jabs at the soft part of the body, the stomach. When Oscar is jabbing to the head and it will hit the target, the Golden Boy either deflect his jab or pull his jab back. Others said Oscar didn't fade on that fight. He was still throwing the jab but it was only for show. It was a fake jab.
