Question remains who's best pound-for-pound

      Oscar De La Hoya won the World Boxing Council welterweight title with a surprisingly one-sided unanimous decision over Pernell Whitaker on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
      The mantle of the world's best pound-for-pound champion is another matter, however.
      And boxing has another controversy on its hands.
      Judges Dalby Shirley and Jerry Roth scored it 116-110 and judge Chuck Giampa had it 115-111 for De La Hoya.
      "Whitaker fought a very tough fight and I'd give him a rematch any time, anywhere," said De La Hoya, who had an abrasion below his right eye from a third-round head butt and a bloody nostril from Whitaker's incessant jab.
      The 24-year-old De La Hoya, now 24-0, wasn't able to hurt Whitaker or put him in danger. Whitaker did what he does best, darting in and out, slipping under punches and causing De La Hoya to frequently flail at air.
      And it was De La Hoya who hit the deck, the victim of a controversial knockdown in the ninth round.
      Whitaker landed a left and seemed to shove De La Hoya to one knee with his right, but referee Mills Lane ruled it a knockdown.
      By the 12th round, De La Hoya appeared to be fighting with the desperation of a man who believed he was behind, while Whitaker clowned and strolled through the final three minutes with the confidence of a victor.
      "The world saw it, the people saw it, my family saw it," said Whitaker, who said he thought he won at least 10 of the 12 rounds.
      De La Hoya clearly thought he won, but he didn't leave the Thomas & Mack Center believing he had given the virtuoso performance he had predicted.
      Whitaker befuddled him, as he had dozens of fighters in the previous 13 and De La Hoya had to concede he was getting anxious. Whitaker landed 232 of 582 punches, according to statistics kept by CompuBox, while De La Hoya landed just 191 of 557. Whitaker outjabbed De La Hoya 160-45.
      "Well, I was frustrated because I felt I could have done much, much better," De La Hoya said. "I was expecting Whitaker to be faster and stronger."
      Despite the difference in the punch statistics, Shirley said he didn't think Whitaker did near enough to win. He said De La Hoya was clearly more aggressive and said he landed the cleaner, more telling blows.
      De La Hoya's one edge in the punch stats came in the power punches, where he landed 146 of 363 to Whitaker's 72 of 192.
      "Oscar was far more skillful offensively and defensively," Shirley said. "He landed the harder, crisper punches and he wanted the fight more. That last round, I don't know what Whitaker was thinking. It didn't lose him the fight, but he didn't do a thing."
      Still, Whitaker did enough to keep De La Hoya from gaining the universal acclaim he so desperately desires. And De La Hoya knew that better than any of the estimated 12,200 in attendance.
      He said he wants the rematch to wipe away the controversy.
      Whitaker, who has been involved in more than one controversial decision in the past, could only shrug his shoulders.
      "He can have the title," Whitaker said disdainfully. "Anybody who saw the fight knows what happened. It was pretty obvious."
     
     Additional photos, stories.