Oscar De La Hoya vs. Félix Trinidad

The Fight of the Millennium
DateSeptember 18, 1999
VenueMandalay Bay Events Center, Paradise, Nevada, U.S.
Title(s) on the lineWBC and IBF welterweight titles
Tale of the tape
Boxer Oscar De La Hoya Félix Trinidad
Nickname "The Golden Boy" "Tito"
Hometown East Los Angeles, California, U.S. Cupey Alto, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Purse $21,000,000 $8,500,000
Pre-fight record 31–0 (25 KO) 35–0 (30 KO)
Age 26 years, 7 months 26 years, 8 months
Height 5 ft 10+1⁄2 in (179 cm) 5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight 147 lb (67 kg) 147 lb (67 kg)
Style Orthodox Orthodox
Recognition WBC
Welterweight Champion
The Ring pound-for-pound No. 1 ranked fighter
4-division world champion		 IBF
Welterweight Champion
The Ring pound-for-pound No. 4 ranked fighter
Result
Trinidad wins via 12–round majority decision (114–114, 115–114, 115–113)

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Félix Trinidad, billed as The Fight of the Millennium, was a boxing match held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on the Las Vegas Strip on September 18, 1999, to unify the WBC and IBF welterweight championships.[1][2]

After twelve tensely fought rounds, Trinidad was declared the winner by a majority decision.[3]

Background

Planned by promoters Bob Arum and Don King, it pitted WBC world champion Oscar De La Hoya, a Mexican American, Los Angeles native, versus Puerto Rican IBF world champion Félix Trinidad. It was the last of the so-called superfights of the 20th century.[4]

The fight

After twelve tensely fought rounds, Trinidad was declared the winner by a majority decision.[3]

De La Hoya and Trinidad were content to box from the outside most of the fight, with De La Hoya using his boxing skills and Trinidad looking for openings in De La Hoya's guard. De La Hoya injured one of Trinidad's eyes along the process, and he built a lead that he apparently felt, after nine rounds, secured him the win on points. In fact, at the time, he was leading, but only by 87–84 and 86–85 on two score cards while the third card was tied at 86–86.

De La Hoya boxed in circles from rounds ten to twelve, while Trinidad upped his offensive output. This became a crucial matter because while De La Hoya backpedalled, Trinidad accumulated points on the scorecards and De La Hoya was given only one round by one of the three scoring judges the rest of the way. Trinidad out-punched De la Hoya by a margin of 64 to 33 during those three remaining rounds.

Trinidad was afterwards declared winner by margins of 115–113 on one card and 115–114 on the second, the third one being a 114–114 draw, thus Trinidad winning by a 12 rounds majority decision.[5]

Aftermath

The bout set the pay-per-view record for a non-heavyweight fight with 1.4 million ($70 million) buys on HBO and $12.9 million in ticket sales, until it was broken by De La Hoya-Mayweather on May 5, 2007. It set the record 2.4 million buys, the most in boxing history until that was surpassed by Mayweather-Pacquiao in 2015 with the record of 4.4 million buys.

In 2014, both boxers were inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.[4][6]

Undercard

Confirmed bouts:[7]

Broadcasting

Country Broadcaster
 United States HBO

See also

References

  1. ^ "Felix Trinidad vs. Oscar De La Hoya". boxrec.com. BoxRec. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  2. ^ Steve Springer (September 23, 1999). "Four days after his controversial loss to Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya sits down and watches the fight with the Times and says: 'I demand a rematch'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  3. ^ a b Smith, Timothy W. (1999-09-19). "BOXING; Trinidad Scores Stunning Upset In a Decision Vs. De La Hoya". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
  4. ^ a b "20 years later: Felix Trinidad vs. Oscar De La Hoya". ESPN.com. 2019-09-18. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  5. ^ "20 years later: Felix Trinidad vs. Oscar De La Hoya". ESPN.com. September 18, 2019.
  6. ^ "Oscar De La Hoya honored to be in the Hall of Fame". ESPN.com. 2014-06-04. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  7. ^ "BoxRec - event".
Preceded by Oscar De La Hoya's bouts
18 September 1999 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
vs. Hugo Pineda
 Félix Trinidad's bouts
18 September 1999 		Succeeded by