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Oscar De la Hoya vs. Bernard Hopkins
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Well, I suffered my first loss last week in the Antonio Margarito-Daniel Santos fight. I predicted Margarito by 10th round TKO, and it didn't even make it to the 10th round. Santos won a technical split decision, and I took my first loss.
I did think that Margarito won the fight, but it could have gone either way. Santos fought well, and fought a lot better thAn I thought he would. In the other fight, I got a win as Miguel Cotto scored a TKO victory over Kelson Pinto. I was very close to predicting this exactly right, as I picked Cotto to win by TKO in the fifth round. Cotto instead won by TKO in the sixth round. Now this week we have one of the biggest fights in a long time. Oscar De La Hoya versus Bernard Hopkins for the undisputed middleweight title.
So far I have played it safe with my picks, but not this week. I'm going against the consensus and predicting a split decision victory for Oscar. I believe this will be a very technical fight, but a very good fight for boxing fans. Let's break it down:
The Fight: Oscar de la Hoya vs Bernard Hopkins
What's at stake: The undisputed middleweight championship of the world
When: Saturday, September 18 in Las Vegas
Breakdown: Both fighters will have their moments. Oscar's speed will be the deciding factor. Oscar will get inside and use his speed and outwork Hopkins just enough to win. It's not going to be a dominating win, just a solid hard fought win. Hopkins will box effectively, and will try to bully Oscar. I think Hopkins will be the aggressor early, with Oscar able to counter with his speed. As the fight goes the roles will reverse. This will be the type of fight that people will say could have gone either way, but Oscar will get the nod by split decision in a good technical fight.
Prediction: De La Hoya by split decision
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© Copyright / All Rights reserved: Doghouse Boxing 1998-2004
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By Tom Dickey (September 18, 2004) 
