Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Oscar to stumble, Leonard predicts

Says De La Hoya will not have same success in middleweight bout

By KEVIN IOLE
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Bernard Hopkins Oscar De La Hoya

Sugar Ray Leonard was boxing's Golden Boy long before Oscar De La Hoya punched his way into the public consciousness.

Like De La Hoya, Leonard was an Olympic gold medalist who was a marketer's dream, with an easy smile, a friendly manner and jaw-dropping skills.

It was those skills that saved Leonard in one of the most talked-about fights in boxing history, when he came out of a three-year retirement in 1987 to defeat Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the middleweight championship.

That is a step De La Hoya, who has fought only once as a middleweight, will try to take Saturday at the MGM Grand, when he takes on undisputed champion Bernard Hopkins, who, like Hagler, is the dominant middleweight of his era.

Leonard said he watched noted slugger John "The Beast" Mugabi in 1986 outbox Hagler for much of their fight at Caesars Palace, giving Leonard the belief that he could handle Hagler. And De La Hoya now says he has seen something in Hopkins that leads him to believe he can pull off the upset.

But Leonard said the situations are vastly different.

"I saw that John "The Beast" Mugabi, a guy who was a great slugger and great puncher, was outboxing Marvin," Leonard said. "I knew I was a better boxer than John Mugabi. I felt if he could outbox him, so could I. Marvin was one dimensional in the sense that he could never really deal with boxers. All guys who could box gave him fits.

"(Roberto) Duran boxed him and Marvin had a hell of a time with him. Even when he fought Tommy (Hearns), once Tommy got hurt and he started to box, he was winning. Boxers were Marvin's weakness."

Leonard said the same is not true of Hopkins. Leonard said Hopkins hasn't displayed the problems with boxers that Hagler did.

Hopkins should be able to adjust if De La Hoya tries to use his speed and quickness to confuse him, Leonard said.

"Bernard is a totally different type of fighter than Marvin," Leonard said. "Hopkins can box or punch, slug or counter. He can do a lot of things. He's tall, he's a big, strong man and he understands the game very well."

The other big difference between Leonard's 1987 fight with Hagler and Saturday's fight is strength. Leonard said he was stronger than De La Hoya and able to use his strength to his advantage.

Still, Leonard said he found in training that fighting middleweights was a different world from fighting welterweights. He suspects De La Hoya will learn the same.

"Without question, I was stronger than Oscar," Leonard said. "Oscar has a great deal of speed, but I sat down on my punches a lot better than he does. If Oscar throws those combinations that he does against the junior middleweights, they won't stop Hopkins. Those shots won't do much. (Felix) Sturm took them when they fought (in June).

"Middleweights are a whole different ballgame. I couldn't knock Hagler out. I didn't try. The only way to do it is by frustration. But I think Hopkins can adapt. He is so focused and wants this so much, I don't think he'll get as frustrated as Marvin did."

Leonard advised Hopkins not to look past De La Hoya.

"He's tougher than people give him credit for," Leonard said of De La Hoya. "He's a tough little (guy). Will he beat Bernard? That depends on what Hopkins comes in the ring. If Bernard gets old in one night, possibly. But Hopkins wants this so badly, I don't see that happening."