Even though I voted no, I think he is.
Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.
Im surprised so many people throw the word legend around so easily.
"You knocked him down...now how bout you try knockin me down ?"
I know Toney is a favorite fighter but why is Toney a legend and Oscar isn't? Oscar fought waaay more top flight opposition then Toney, I love Toney but no way would his name pop into my head before Oscar's when recalling fighters from their era. Oscar had so many more career defining fights, not to mention he feasted on much better competition between the big fights, it's not fair to classify Toney as a legend and not Oscar imo.
And Tito I'm sorry but the fact that he was a draw definitely means something, it means he had people talking and had the casual fan talking probably more then any fighter not named Tyson. That's a big deal, he's always going to be remembered more then great fighters who didn't have the same buzz as him, like Toney for example.
Plus he made good fights, he was very very rarely in a dull fight. Even against lesser opposition like Oba Carr, Darrel Coley, Arturo Gatti, John John Molina etc. he always provided really exciting fights. That has to count for the legend status because his fights were always an event.
I mean it's subjective, some people have 1000 legends and some have 20, but Oscar will be talked about as much as anyone from the era in 20-30 years and for me that qualifies as legendary. There is no right or wrong here because the term 'legendary' is subjective and not strictly defined.
Actually if you took the time to read the actual post instead of just hilighting stuff out of context, I never used a "good looks" argument at all. What I insinuated was IN SPITE OF HIS GOOD LOOKS, he was a warrior in the ring.
Why would a Tito fan be bitter at ODLH? Tito gained a world of stock with that DISGUSTING robbery of a victory he got over DLH.
Just having fun with the "good looking" argument. I know you're not using it as a reason why ODLH should be considered a legend. On a serious note, however, I'm not going to get into another Tito-DLH fight argument. Suffice it to say, as I've always said and maintain, that Tito got that "robbery" in DLH's backyard, with non-Puerto Rican judges, and a strictly pro-DLH crowd. While Tito got outboxed in most of the first rounds of the fight, for some inexplicable reason (I still maintain DLH had tasted Tito's right) he chose to run around like a chicken through the last 3 rounds and basically gave away the fight. And some objective fans here on the forum (I realize I'm not objective on this particular subject) had the fight close or even a draw after the 12 rounds. Too bad the matter never got resolved in a rematch.
I don't want to sidetracked the topic too much, but I scored it a draw after 12 for that fight. Oscar started running in the last half of the 9th, so I gave that round along with the last 3 to Tito, however from rounds 1-8 I had it 6-2 in favor of Oscar. His fans cannot call robbery when Oscar decided to get on his bike and hardly throw any punches starting from the last half of round 9 and onwards. That fight for all the hype it got never lived up to it, it was a massive disappointment for many boxing fans like myself.
Now back on topic, yes Oscar is a legend in my eyes, as people have pointed out he's done a lot for the sport of boxing, it didn't matter or not if he won or lost the fight, it's just that his fights were events and kept boxing in the mainstream. I think HBO had it right when it said Oscar was the Latino version of Ray Leonard, although I have to add he lost more of his big fights than Ray did. He's not a legend like Ray, but he is a legend.
Oscar always strikes me as the David Beckham of boxing. A good fighter whose popularity transcended the sport.
Legend. He fought all-comers, something very rare in this sport and something other legends--Chavez, RJJ, PBF, PacMan--can't say. And he did it while possessing a popularity that could've enabled him to make considerable $$ while not doing so. Furthermore, no one dominated him in his prime, until Hopkins at MW.
People forget how dominant he was in the lightweight divisions, where his Hearns-like height and reach advantage gave him great leverage, enabling him to KO everyone except JJMolina…and that included Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Jesse James Leija, Genaro Hernandez, Rafael Ruelas, and Jorge Paez. Excellent names.
He then went on to became the first person to stop JCChavez (in brutal fashion) and the first to hand Sweet Pea a legitimate defeat, though to be fair, both were past their primes and Pernell put up an good fight. Nonetheless, these guys are legends and ODLH made history defeating them.
He then went on to defeat a red-hot –prime Quartey in dramatic fashion and outbox an also red-hot-prime Trinidad. He was the first person to expose Trinidad’s one-dimensionless and no matter how you judged the fight, it’s hard to say ODLH was truly defeated.
But that defeat and the 2 Mosley fights are why ODLH legend status remains in doubt. Switch the results around, and there would be no doubt. But the fact that we could easily switch the results (with the exception of the first Mosley fight, suggest that ODLH deserves legend status…since boxing subjective judging shouldn’t be taken as the final word. Furthermore, Mosley’s PED use should allow us to rank ODLH higher.
It may be a long time until we see another fighter who so willing and able to fight everyone.
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