Trinidad defeats De La Hoya; unifies welterweight title

Steve Carp

Saturday, Sept. 18, 1999 | 11:40 a.m.

With two undefeated combatants at the prime of their careers and with world championship titles on the line, not to mention a place in boxing history, something had to give.

Sure enough, it did Saturday as the battle of welterweight greats was won by Felix Trinidad, who scored a majority decision over Oscar De La Hoya to win the world welterweight championship.

A late surge by Trinidad enabled him to hand De La Hoya his first loss as a professional in 32 fights. Trinidad improved to 36-0.

Judge Jerry Roth of Las Vegas and Belgium's Bob Logist had Trinidad winning, Roth scored it 115-113 and Logist had it 115-114. Tacoma's Glen Hamada had it even, 114-114.

The Sun's two scorecards had it even, 114-114 and 115-113 for Trinidad.

"I know Oscar is a great fighter," Trinidad said of his foe. "But I had the will to win. I didn't know if I'd win by knockout or by decision. I just knew I could win."

De La Hoya thought he had done enough throughout to win the fight.

"I'm hurting inside," he said. "I thought I had it won. I outboxed him and I tried to demonstrate a boxing show. It didn't work."

With a raucous sellout crowd of 12,500 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center looking on, and millions paying $50 to watch the battle on pay-per-view and closed-circuit television, the "Fight of the Millennium," as it was billed, really didn't come close to living up to its hype.

It was a relatively dull fight with only pockets of action. Most of the time, it was the two fighters circling, probing, but not doing a lot of hitting. There were few of the electrifying exchanges that could have made this a classic.

Both fighters made the 147-pound limit with no problem. De La Hoya, the World Boxing Council champion who went over the $100 million mark in purses with Saturday's appearance, earned $15 million while Trinidad, the International Boxing Federation titleholder, picked up $8.5 million.

Betting-wise, there was furious two-way action at Mandalay Bay as the fight went off as pick 'em with each fighter bet at 6-5 (minus-120). But around town, De La Hoya was a minus-135 favorite at some properties while Trinidad was minus-130 at others.

De La Hoya built up an early lead, countering effectively as Trinidad looked to land home-run shots to the head, only to miss. Trinidad appeared to win the fourth round with De La Hoya bouncing back in the fifth.

Prior to the fight, Trinidad had predicted he'd knock De La Hoya out in the sixth round. But it turned out to be one of De La Hoya's best three minutes. He totally dominated, re-establishing the jab while nailing Trinidad with a couple of good straight right hands.

Trinidad rebounded with a strong seventh round, dominating with an early combo to the head and body, then following later with a smart right to De La Hoya's chin. De La Hoya rallied late with a good right-left to the head and just after the bell sounded, Trinidad hit De La Hoya in the face, which peeved the former Olympic gold medalist.

The late blow seemed to awaken De La Hoya, who attacked with several combinations and survived a left hook to his face. But Trinidad, unfazed, rallied to dominate the ninth round. A hard right to the side of De La Hoya's face did the most damage as the tide began to turn.

Another right to the head by Trinidad in the 10th was the highlight of what was another aggressive round by the Puerto Rico native. And it was more of the same in round 11 as Trinidad continued to play the role of the pursuer and rocked De La Hoya with some big left hands, including a roundhouse with 20 seconds to go in the round.

It was still up for grabs going into the final round. Or so it seemed. Many sitting at ringside still believed De La Hoya was ahead. But the judges had Trinidad winning the late rounds and that ultimately proved to be the difference.

He tried to cut the ring on De La Hoya and force the "Golden Boy" to fight. And when De La Hoya tried to land, Trinidad returned fire. As the seconds ticked away, Trinidad's confidence was swelling and De La Hoya was scrambling.

The product of East Los Angeles attempted one final flurry in the closing moments. But it wasn't enough. For the first time in his stellar career, De La Hoya was on the short end.

"I thought I put on he boxing lesson of my life," De La Hoya said. "I made him miss.

"Boxing ability counts a lot. My tactic was to try and take away his confidence. But it didn't work."

The question is, why did De La Hoya lay back down the stretch?

"I thought I was in control," he said. "People were expecting me to duke it out. But I wanted to put on a boxing exhibition."

Trinidad said: "I knew it was close. I put a lot of pressure on him the last few rounds. I think you can tell he lost to me."

On the undercard, Vassily Jirov defended his IBF cruiserweight title with a 10th-round TKO win over Dale Brown, Eric Morel scored a 12-round unanimous decision in his super flyweight bout over Miguel Angel Granados, Butterbean Esch registered a second-round TKO in his scheduled four-round superheavyweight contest over Ken Craven and Mia St. John scored a fourth-round TKO victory over Kelley Downey in a women's featherweight bout.