De La Hoya, after losing a unanimous decision to Shane Mosley this past Saturday in Las Vegas, had promised to exhaust all his resources and financial clout to 'investigate' the judging of Duane Ford, Stanley Christodoulou and Anek Hongtongkam, all of whom who scored the bout 115-113 in favor of Mosley.

Ratner, who is one of the most respected figures in the sport and known for his honor and integrity, says he had no problems with the judging in what he knew would be a closely contested fight from the onset.

"When we first had the fight signed there was no question this was going to be a 12-round fight," Ratner said from his offices in Las Vegas. "I never thought this was going to be a knockout or a
dominating fight by either guy. There's going to be some rounds that were going to be close and I purposely told my commissioners that we better go international because the Mosley people will feel if we use all Nevada judges that it wouldn't look to them like it would be a fair playing field.

"Which I had no problems with, so I anticipated that and I decided that we would look for the best of the international judges and I think I had two of the top judges in the world come in from South Africa (Christodoulou) and Bangkok (Hongtongkam). And Duane Ford has probably judged 135, 140 world championship fights. (He’s) one of my top, top judges here in the state of Nevada. They certainly come to the decision, they're not looking at each other, they judged each round individually. The last four rounds were the same. Six
of the twelve rounds were consistent, it was a tough fight, there were some tough rounds and there's no question the judging was very, very good. I had no problems with the judging."

After every fight card, Ratner meets with his judges to go over their scorecards.

"When I had my meeting with the judges, I had each judge stand up and talk about what they saw and they all thought that the first two-thirds of the fight were very close and Oscar was winning and they felt Mosley was the much stronger of the two in the last
four rounds and landed the better punches," Ratner explained.

It's clear that there is a clear division between those who saw the fight ringside (where the press row majority had Mosley winning) and those watching at home. It's clear that they saw different fights. Ratner agrees.

"I've always said for a fight fan to really watch a fight they should turn the sound off," Ratner says. "Because then you get a much better objective view. In this case, if the announcers think one guy’s winning, well, that flavors the way you watch it, subconsciously or consciously. And so the majority of the phone calls -- and I've gotten a lot of nasty phone calls and emails -- are from TV viewers who felt like the announcers and punch stat people, that Oscar won,
so how could the judges say he lost?"

The bottom line is that whatever De La Hoya decides to do in terms of his investigation, it could be fruitless.

"You can't protest a judge’s decision unless the scores were mis-added or if you can prove collusion between the three judges," said Ratner. "There's none of that. We certainly review every fight and I haven't seen the television replay yet, but I will certainly watch it. But the scores will stand, the result will stand and we'll go forward."

De La Hoya was obviously emotional -- which is completely understandable – after the fight. Maybe after a day or two of reflection he will decide to not go through with this supposed 'investigation'. But by going through with this, he may actually be creating more bad will than good. However, his comments have already hurt the sport he claimed he is trying to help clean up.

"I feel bad for the sport, this was a shining moment for the sport," Ratner lamented. "I said before the fight I was hoping for a ninth-round knockout either way so I wouldn't be doing this today. But I feel bad that the sport is being pilloried around again and it
doesn't matter where I bring the judges, they’re ‘Nevada judges’, ‘it's a Nevada decision' and I hate to be on the defensive but I will handle it. But I have no second thoughts that there was anything unfair whatsoever."

Let’s start with this: I had Oscar De La Hoya defeating Shane Mosley by two points, 115-113. (I gave Mosley four of the last five rounds.) I didn’t attend the fight, and since scoring off the TV screen is a shaky exercise, take my card for what it’s worth. But this morning, Dan Rafael of “USA Today” told me the writers in attendance, most of whom had picked Oscar to win, were mixed. A few had Oscar big (four or five points), while a few others had Sugar Shane big. Most either had Oscar small or Shane small.

Either way, this decision was not a black eye for boxing. In fact, it wasn’t even a bruise. When Oscar spoke of “an investigation” and Bob Arum said he would promote for the remainder of the year and then leave boxing, they sounded like whiners. If the game doesn’t go my way, I’m taking the ball and going home.

The Trinidad-De La Hoya decision was worth bitching about. Not this one.

And what the hell was HBO’s George Foreman talking about when he said the scoring was meant to send Arum “a message”? Worse yet, Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant responded to Big George’s conspiracy nonsense. (I suppose they had no choice.) Maybe Foreman can work the next fight from Mars.

On to the greater meaning. A few days before the fight, I asked “KO” and “The Ring” columnist Jeff Ryan whether Oscar belonged, in a historical sense, with Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, and Duran. His answer was intriguing: For such a placement, Ryan said, De La Hoya needed a win over not only Mosley, but Bernard Hopkins, too. Well, one win at a time, I suppose.

Oscar has been perplexing for years, at least partly because he’s never had a definitive boxing style. (That can happen when you change trainers every three fights.) Tactically, he was sound for the first half of the Mosley rematch, but as was the case in his uneven bout with Trinidad, he was unable to extend his plan to the championship rounds.

All too often, Oscar has been a racehorse bred for a mile who’s asked to run the classic distance of a mile-and-a-quarter. Early on, this wasn’t the case. In 1995, he rallied late against the roughhousing John-John Molina, and in ’97, he won the last round vs. Pernell Whitaker. (To be more accurate, Whitaker gave the round away.)

But in 1999, De La Hoya had to sweat out a split decision over Ike Quartey because his spirited 12th-round attack failed to produce a finish. His fade against Trinidad was so inglorious that I was hesitant to argue that he deserved the verdict. And the 12th round in the first Mosley fight cost Oscar a draw—and the welterweight title.

Conversely, Oscar was a symbol of stamina when he finished Fernando Vargas in the 11th round of a close fight. And Vargas was the strongest fighter De La Hoya has ever faced!

Like I said, the guy is perplexing.

I’m sure Oscar and trainer Floyd Mayweather would maintain that De La Hoya didn’t poop out down the stretch in the Mosley rematch. The instructions from the corner were to box, box, and box some more. But watch that 12th round again and you’ll see a confident and energized fighter loading up, and his tentative opponent giving ground as if waiting for the final bell.

De La Hoya was the tentative one.

It might seem odd to lower Oscar’s standing for a fight I thought he won, but that’s exactly what I’m doing. An all-time great? Probably. In a class with Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, and Duran? Probably not.

It seems he keeps falling a couple of rounds short.

Steve Farhood is a Showtime boxing analyst and a boxinginsider.com contributor.

[TOP]

FIGHT NEWS REPORTS
COMPUBOX PUNCH STATS
COMPUBOX ANALYSIS
ANTHONY EVANS-SECONDS OUT
RON BORGES - HBO
ESPN
MAX BOXING - DOUG FISCHER

[TOP]

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Lazcano won TKO11 - Upham report

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