Terence Crawford chasing greatness like Oscar De La Hoya

This Saturday in Las Vegas, alas no longer the singular mecca of boxing that once it was, Terence Crawford reaches the final scenes of his decorated career on the grandest stage of all. A 17-year voyage in which he has become undisputed champion in the Lightweight, Junior Welterweight and Welterweight divisions. It is a compelling assembly of titles in an era more famous for the obstacles the sanctioning bodies impose on those pursuant of transcendent glory than the fights won to overcome them.

Despite the myriad belts he has accumulated, Crawford still needs to beat Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez if he is to claim a place alongside the pantheon of greats who have conquered multiple divisions in the generations before him. The names of Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran writ large among them.

Terence Crawford chasing greatness like Oscar De La Hoya

De La Hoya seemed unbeatable until moving up too high in weight

Oscar De La Hoya is a fighter of more recent vintage who has trodden a similar path to the one Crawford is following. Beginning as a Super-Featherweight, De La Hoya became a darling of the Las Vegas congregation as he accumulated title after title in a career that spanned sixteen years and included an unsuccessful foray of his own into the Middleweight division.

Arguably, De La Hoya’s richest form came in the three years from 1997 that he spent in the Welterweight division. Imagine a sequence of opponents that contains, but is not limited to; Pernell Whitaker, Hector Camacho, Julio Cesar Chavez, Ike Quartey, Oba Carr, Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley.

It represents a level of quality and activity that his successors find impossible to muster and why fighters like Crawford struggle in any conversation about their merits in comparison. De La Hoya had fast feet, quick hands and delivered combinations with aggression and variety – he was tougher than his Golden Boy moniker and Hollywood smile suggested and a brave selector of opponents.

Fighters like Julio Cesar Chavez and Jorge Paez were grizzled veterans when De La Hoya encountered them as a younger professional, but nevertheless fiercely competitive. They would have pounced on weakness. De La Hoya had real grit too.

He ran out of road once he reached Middleweight. A contentious decision win following a sloppy display versus Felix Sturm, a strong warning that the proposed fight with Bernard Hopkins was a step too far. It didn’t deter De La Hoya, and he was unceremoniously stopped with a body shot in the 9th round the following year.

What would a Terence Crawford-Oscar De La Hoya Bout Have Looked Like?

Any mythical contest between Oscar De La Hoya and Terence Crawford, at either 140 or 147 pounds, would have been a huge box office event and Crawford would undoubtedly have caused stylistic problems. De La Hoya’s work rate in his prime was high, tall at the weight too, he had good hand speed and attacked in combination.

Nimble and mobile he was precise and patient when required to be, as evidenced when he faced Felix Trinidad. De La Hoya used footwork and hand speed to control the puncher in the first half of their hotly disputed fight.

It would be a tactical bout; Crawford looking for opportunities on the counter to try to time and punish De La Hoya’s attacks. Both looking to control the distance with their jab. Pernell Whitaker and Shane Mosley were highly skilled operators who found different routes to success with a prime De La Hoya – Whitaker dropped a decision to him in 97 in a bout many felt he won, and Sugar Shane bested him twice at 147 and 154. Although a post-fight, failed test for Mosley should’ve nullified one of those outcomes.

Crawford may have edged De La Hoya on any given night, although this nostalgia has struggled to make the argument, but if he can out manoeuvre Canelo on Saturday he will add much needed substance to the claim.