BoxRec

Well bit of a surprise for Oscar's next fight its Steve Forbes, former Super feather title holder.
Thats set for May, so i guess that counts a fight against Hatton out.

I think this match-up is little more than a disgrace and De La Hoya should get loads of abuse for making it.
Forbes is going to be massively outgunned in every department - to call it a mis-match doesn't even come close to describing it.
The 'Golden Boy''s reputation has been well and truly tarnished this time...

Wastn forbes brought in to spar hatton as he has a smilar defensive style to mayweather?

Yeah he was, Forbes is a good boxer and i don't think this is the walk in the park alot of people do.
But size is the main factor in this fight, i can see DLH being to big for him.

Even stranger is the fact that the 2 other option that DLH was looking at were Paulie Malignaggi or Dmitriy Salita, so obviously DLH doesn't think he's got that much strength left against proper light middles.

Yeah he was, Forbes is a good boxer and i don't think this is the walk in the park alot of people do.
But size is the main factor in this fight, i can see DLH being to big for him.

Even stranger is the fact that the 2 other option that DLH was looking at were Paulie Malignaggi or Dmitriy Salita, so obviously DLH doesn't think he's got that much strength left against proper light middles.

I'm sure it's at Welter or 150 catchweight. He's aiming to rematch Mayweather at 147 so I imagine this fight is just to work towards that weight for the rematch and to shake off the ring rust.

Not a bad match at all, as "warm ups" go. Let's face it, he was never going to face someone LIKELY to beat him, and bearing that in mind, he could have done a lot worse than Forbes.

oliverfennell wrote:Not a bad match at all, as "warm ups" go. Let's face it, he was never going to face someone LIKELY to beat him, and bearing that in mind, he could have done a lot worse than Forbes.

I can't bear this 'let's just accept this match' mentality - we're talking about a guy who lost fairly recently to Grady Brewer for Christ's sake!

Deserter wrote:

oliverfennell wrote:Not a bad match at all, as "warm ups" go. Let's face it, he was never going to face someone LIKELY to beat him, and bearing that in mind, he could have done a lot worse than Forbes.

I can't bear this 'let's just accept this match' mentality - we're talking about a guy who lost fairly recently to Grady Brewer for Christ's sake!

In an ideal world, every fight would be 50-50, but it's not.

ODLH is looking at a showcase, no more and no less, for his next fight. He'd sell out an arena if he fought you or me, so bearing that in mind, it's not a bad match. Forbes is a genuine fringe contender and can probably give Oscar a better fight than Mayorga did.

This is a joke.

I watched the Forbes vs. Hopkins fight on the 'net and Forbes looked shit. For God's sake, it's going to such a mismatch - if Hopkins can man-handle him at junior-welterweight then Hoya is going to smash him up at welterweight, never mind 150lbs if it's made at a catch-weight. I would've preferred him to go in against someone like Luis Collazo or Oktay Urkal.

Bear in mind, this isn't a HBO PPV event, only HBO Sports, so the opponent always was going to be sht.

Terrible match up, shame on DLH.

Old bones Ian wrote:Yeah he was, Forbes is a good boxer and i don't think this is the walk in the park alot of people do.
But size is the main factor in this fight, i can see DLH being to big for him.

Even stranger is the fact that the 2 other option that DLH was looking at were Paulie Malignaggi or Dmitriy Salita, so obviously DLH doesn't think he's got that much strength left against proper light middles.

I think he is working on the basis that he cannot fight for 36 minutes anymore, so wants to protect himself by fighting relative non-punchers. Wierd thing is, Salita and Feather Fists would both bring in the numbers due to their demographic catchments, whereas Forbes is a bit of a nobody in world terms...

This is a joke, why does he need a warm-up!! He'll knock Forbes into next week.....

oliverfennell wrote: Forbes is a genuine fringe contender and can probably give Oscar a better fight than Mayorga did.

At the proposed weight he most definitely is not a genuine fringe contender and I guarantee you he will not give Oscar a better fight than Mayorga.
De La Hoya will win every minute of every round of this mismatch while it lasts, unless he consciously chooses to 'carry' Forbes.
Oliver, there's no need to patronise me with the ideal world 50/50 match, as I'm fully aware of the reality of boxing, but this isn't even a 99/1 match - I dare anyone on here to make a plausible case for Forbes even being remotely competitive... we're talking about someone who hasn't fought at true world-class level in about eight years, who is campaigning massively out of his natural weight class, and someone who has lost to the non-entity that is Grady Brewer and barely squeaked past one-time prospect Bojado in his last outing.
The fact that 'casual' fans will still pack out the arena doesn't justify those who know their boxing (and I include you in this number) being prepared to accept such a match-up.
There are plenty of other fighters De La Hoya could have faced that wouldn't have involved cheating the fans in this manner while still acting as a tune up for any potential Mayweather rematch. Alfonso Gomez strikes me as a perfect example.

Gomez is fighting Cotto.

Exactly, it seems the Contender is helping get these guys title shots!

Bojado was one of DLH's boxers so maybe that's linked to it as well. I have to agree with Deserter, this is a total mismatch....

He'll get knocked out...

Asterix wrote:Gomez is fighting Cotto.

Meant him more as an example of the type of opponent De La Hoya should be facing fella i.e. at least slightly competitive!

As long as no one starts hyping-up this match to be a classic encounter or an idiot Alphabet organisation slaps a wanky title on the line, it's fine for De La Hoya to take a match like this now and again.

For all the excellent opponents De La Hoya has taken on down the years, he can certainly get away with this....as long as it's just a good old fashioned 10 rounder or something similar.

I've no problem at all with the dip in opposition and glad to see Oscar staying slightly more active than usual.

shocking. Forbes cannot be expected to be anything up at 154-pounds, or even 147, surely?

He's tiny as well, what is he about 5ft 7?

DLH has better range, is more comfortable at this weight, hits harder and has a great chin. It's daft.

It sums up DLH's entire career. Any big fight he ever took it was because the other guy was disadvantaged in some big way. Now he's playing the blatant handicapping game even more, because at this stage he hasn't got the gas in him to beat a proper 154-pound contender. I hate these corporate nobs - they take the fun out of everything.

Its far from an inspiring match up but it is little surprise to me that DLH wants to 'showcase' and get one back in the win column ahead of another Mega fight with PBF.

2 Ounce is a stylish fighter but will be serevely hampered by his lack of size.

Its a gimme for the Golden Boy and, I suppose, when you are as influential as him you make up your own rules..

Deserter wrote:The fact that 'casual' fans will still pack out the arena doesn't justify those who know their boxing (and I include you in this number) being prepared to accept such a match-up.

Not that it's right, but these kinds of "event" matches have been a staple of boxing for a long time. And, accepting that they happen, this is no worse than most - and in fact is better than many. I certainly wouldn't pay to watch it, or attend it, but if it's on Sky or Setanta, which I subscribe to anyway, then I'll watch.

It's certainly no worse than anything Tyson did in latter years, or Hatton's WBU run, or much of Calzaghe's and Hopkins' reigns.

Admittedly the size difference is the glaring point here, but that aside, Forbes has decent pedigree. Not elite, but decent.

Autobarn wrote:shocking. Forbes cannot be expected to be anything up at 154-pounds, or even 147, surely?

142lbs at his last fight. 149 lbs for The Contender final.