Thread: Did the Mayweather fight finish Oscar?

I remember feeling this when watching Oscar fighting Steve Forbes, and I think it is apparent now. That night against Floyd, Oscar gave it all he could against a guy who was having a bad night by his standards, and still lost and was out-boxed. Mentally I think this scarred him more than other defeat, where he could claim bad judging (Trinidad/Mosley) or problems with size (B-Hop), because he lost to a smaller guy at 'his' weight despite giving it his best. I feel this is what has made him gun-shy. Anyway I wanna see what everyone else feels about this?

* Just to specify I'm talkin bout what mentally finished him, not what physically deteriorated ODLH. Also Pac-fans, this is NOT a Pac bashing post, any guy who goes and beats a legend, even a faded one, 40lbs higher than where he began his career deserves all the credit he is currently getting in my book.

I think fighting once a year for most of the better half of a decade, his age, weight jumping, ring wars he has been in, long amateur career, all finally caught up to him. It is the fate of almost any fighter. I think he has been on the slide but the slide got a lot steeper the other night.

Match ups make fights, I just think people can't handle that Pacquiao is actually as good as he is.

a lot of things caught up to oscar I think. oscar had lost his speed, reflexes, his inactivity over the years also hurt him, plus the shoulder injury limited him further and the weight in my opinion was the last straw, he just looked so weak. taking nothing away from pacquio's victory. to me manny is the fighter of this decade ahead of floyd imo.

De la Hoya came to fight against floyd and although even in defeat got his tactics spot on and came so close to pulling it off.

But 2 years can do a lot to a man of 37 and i think oscar realised quite early on against pacquiao he just didnt have it in him to keep up with that kind of pace that he managed quite well against PBF.

Dont wanna take too much away from an awesome pacquiao but ODLH just came at him in straight lines and made himself an easy target throughout the fight which he clearly didnt do against floyd.


so to answer your question.........NO

NO, his fight with Pac did.

Suddenly the "I won't fight anymore Puerto Ricans" quote all makes sense...also the avoidance of Margarito makes sense as well.

Originally Posted by JazMerkin

I remember feeling this when watching Oscar fighting Steve Forbes, and I think it is apparent now. That night against Floyd, Oscar gave it all he could against a guy who was having a bad night by his standards, and still lost and was out-boxed. Mentally I think this scarred him more than other defeat, where he could claim bad judging (Trinidad/Mosley) or problems with size (B-Hop), because he lost to a smaller guy at 'his' weight despite giving it his best. I feel this is what has made him gun-shy. Anyway I wanna see what everyone else feels about this?

* Just to specify I'm talkin bout what mentally finished him, not what physically deteriorated ODLH. Also Pac-fans, this is NOT a Pac bashing post, any guy who goes and beats a legend, even a faded one, 40lbs higher than where he began his career deserves all the credit he is currently getting in my book.

You may be right dude... But DURING and after Pac fight, we've all clearly seen DLH was mentally badly injured... Specially after rd.8 when his corner is asking whether they should wave off the fight, man, have you seen DLH face? He looked shocked and his body language showed that he just want to quit the fight... As you have said that whether PBF finished off DLH mentally? You may be right but after he loses to Pac? Absolutely nothing more left on mental strength... With all due of respect, IMO the great GoldenBoy should stop here and just pursue the promoting career...

Originally Posted by Lyle

Suddenly the "I won't fight anymore Puerto Ricans" quote all makes sense...also the avoidance of Margarito makes sense as well.

Add to that avoiding Vernon Forrest and Corey Spinks (as laughable as a fight against Spinks may seem).

It was the shoulder injury first and foremost,that jab hasnt looked the same since then.
He just couldnt keep Pac Man off him with that half hearted jab,Pac had nothing to fear from it.
His legs are toast as well,he doesnt cut angles,and he's not fast enough to dance out.
Oscar was never the heaviest handed puncher in the world anyway,but he needed power to make Pac respect his punches. And then he comes in weight drained to boot.
The whole thing is a recipe for disaster,when your training an older fighter,you dont want,you need them to have the heavier hands,to make up for their lack of speed.
Didnt happen
Pac actually had the heavier hands.
Lets face it,even if it was only a ghost of Oscar in his prime,Pac whupped the hell out of him

The thing is he just didn't look like he wanted to throw punches, not against Pac, or even against Forbes, who as much I like him for his chin, was basically in there as a glorified sparring partner that night. In the Mayweather fight, he actually threw more punches than PBF, even if he was significantly outlanded. To make it worse Mayweather had a bad night by his standards & still beat him. I just think this would weigh heavily on a guy like Oscar's mind, because like many boxers he believes he is the best, & yet was beaten by a guy not on top form. I know he obviously had physical problems going into the fight with Pac, but his reluctance to throw a punch was embarassing.

Again to make it clear, I'm not trying to question Pac's performance, which was amazing, but looking at why ODLH was so afraid to throw punches

Actually Oscar did do well if he was fighting floyd again. Oscar threw about 400 while pac throw 580 in 8 rounds. He was outgunned by about 200 and pacs accuracy was insane 59% power punch landed. while oscar could barely land, his total landed punch was only around 20%. Even if you are that much bigger then pac thats not going to get it done. Did oscar think pac wouldn't be the same whirlwind his always been at 147? Did he think it would be like fighting floyd, one punch at a time or momentary flurries while close to the ropes? It wasn't just the speed of pac it was the pace. after the second round oscar realize his not prepared for pacs speed AND PACE. he wasn't gun shy he was outgunned. i think he threw as much as he did during the floyd fight in 8 rounds. Pac finish off oscar, the floyd fight barely put a dent on oscar. Some people even though oscar won that fight so how could it have finish him off

I doubt that fight ruined him but it did make him start to see that he just doesn't have it...well at least not enough of it to beat any of the top guys anymore, and no one wants to see him fight lesser guys anymore.

Originally Posted by Julius Rain

Actually Oscar did do well if he was fighting floyd again. Oscar threw about 400 while pac throw 580 in 8 rounds. He was outgunned by about 200 and pacs accuracy was insane 59% power punch landed. while oscar could barely land, his total landed punch was only around 20%. Even if you are that much bigger then pac thats not going to get it done. Did oscar think pac wouldn't be the same whirlwind his always been at 147? Did he think it would be like fighting floyd, one punch at a time or momentary flurries while close to the ropes? It wasn't just the speed of pac it was the pace. after the second round oscar realize his not prepared for pacs speed AND PACE. he wasn't gun shy he was outgunned. i think he threw as much as he did during the floyd fight in 8 rounds. Pac finish off oscar, the floyd fight barely put a dent on oscar. Some people even though oscar won that fight so how could it have finish him off

For the last time I'm NOT saying the fight physically finished him, I'm saying it made him doubt himself in such a way for the 1st time MENTALLY. I am not talking about how good Pac was, I'm reflecting on Oscar's performance in both that fight & the Forbes one. If those punch stats are true & Oscar was throwing as many punches I stand corrected. IMO the Mayweather fight was the first to really make him doubt his own ability, & I'm aware some people believe he won it, but how he talked after the Forbes fight made me believe that he himself thought he'd lost. Again, I'm not Moono trying to downplay Pac, but Oscar just looked frightened the other night, & I think that defeat got to him more than any other, even if it was one the least physically damaging fights he had

I don't think it finished him, but I think in retrospect you could see he was past it. I really think a prime Oscar would have beaten Floyd on that night. The prime Oscar would have pumped the jab and could throw fast combinations that we didn't see on that night. There were opportunities for him to win, but he could not pull the trigger. I think that is what Roach was talking about leading up to the fight with Manny. Oscar could not explain why he didn't throw the jab more after the fight, I think it was that his reflexes were nearly shot (at least to where he could compete with an elite fighter in his prime). Mayweather is a cautious defensive fighter by nature; had he had the stones to step up the pace and be more aggressive the way Manny did, Floyd might have been able to whip Oscar as bad as Manny did.