Quote Originally Posted by shza
Quote Originally Posted by NuthaPug

What I want to know is what was the basis, besides sheer imaginative speculation, for anyone reasoning that DLH was not hungry, or was rusty or was too old?

Not a thing. Not a gosh-durn thing. :P
Come on, that's not fair. Rusty - hadn't fought a fight in a year and a half. Too old - lost all three of the fights he'd fought in the last 3 years (because he didn't beat Sturm).

The dumb move was going from that to predicting that a hand-picked idiot who can't fight would have a shot at beating ODH anyway. I still think Oscar's past his prime--but I'd take a past-his-prime ODH every single time against a non-elite, undisciplined, no-defense talker like Mayorga.
Well, I think it's fair.

What makes a person rusty? The inability to remember what it's like in the ring when you are training and sparring, so that the 'real deal' seems strange to you. Someone with DLH's experience should not experience such rust even after an extended layoff.

Old: 33 isn't young, but it's not old yet, not if you haven't been beat up a lot. In case you haven't, DLH hasn't been beat up too awful much over the years.

Lost his last three fights? Well, Hopkins ... let it go. It can't count seriously against DLH. He didn't just step up in weight; he stepped up to Hopkins at the same time. Jones stepped up to heavy and won, but it was against a Ruiz, not against Lewis.

Against Sturm ... yeah, it was sloppy. He was sloppy. Had he come in better prepared it would have been different.

Against Mosely ... well, he lost by 2 points on each card in a 12-round UD. He lost to Mosely also in 2000 - six years ago - in a roughly similarly close fight. Was he past his prime then, too, at 27 or so? No? Then why'd he lose to Mosely in a close fight when he was at his prime and in just as close a fight when he was "past" his prime? Huh? Explain it, please!

It's just too easy to pour some numbers and some faulty logic into a blender and come out with "boxing analysis."

I think it was legitimate to <u>wonder</u> about age and ring rust, but to assume ... nothing but such things could have explained a Mayorga win. And if there was significant rust or age, and Mayorga was able to slip in and pound him - then the Mayorga win was possible, even if he doesn't compare to what DLH once was. (Though "still is" ends up being the case, doesn't it?)

So in my book you really haven't got much to stand on when you say that DLH is past his prime. Sure, he's 33, so he must be. But it doesn't look like it matters a whole lot, does it?