by Scott Howze
special to The Current

While many red-blooded American men packed themselves into sports bars, lined up for chips and dips, and fried/grilled/sauteed a variety of beef and pork products a couple of weeks ago for the Da la Hoya/Trinadad fight, many were let down.

It wasn't because it was arguably the most boring 36 minutes of boxing many of us have ever seen.

It wasn't that the fight between a former Playboy model and another woman was the best fight on the card. It was that De La Hoya/Trinadad was compared to Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Thomas "The Hitman" Hearnes, the defining welterweight fight of our generation, and it just came up short.

There was none of the heart we have come to expect from De la Hoya, even in the mist of questionable victories over Ike Quartey and Pernell Whittaker.

There was too much respect in Trinadad, usually a relentless head-hunter as he wildly threw uppercuts that always seem to miss by a mile.

The first eight rounds were about even. You could make an argument for your favorite boxer after each round; it was that close. However, since De la Hoya runs for 2 minutes and 50 seconds and then, like clockwork, throws a fury of punches the last ten seconds, it is easy to give him four of those rounds.

The last four rounds were definitely Trinadad's. In rounds 8-12 De la Hoya fought not-to-lose vs. fighting-to-win. Using the old adage, you can't win a fight by running, I think the judges were right on point with their decision. Trinadad won a majority decision 114-114, 115-113, 115-114.

Neither fighter ever really seemed ready to hit the other guy. Both fighters were just getting "the feel" of the other.

Usually that is ok to watch, but not when it lasts the entire fight. De la Hoya/Trinadad was over-analyzed, over-hyped, and at $50 a pop, over-priced.

To the promoters of the fight, who are undoubtedly going to set up a rematch, further drawing parallels to the Sugar Ray Leonard/Thomas "The Hitman" Hearnes fight, I have but one thing to say. I saw the Leonard/Hearnes fight, the Leonard/Hearnes fight is a favorite of mine, De la Hoya/Trinadad was no Leonard/Hearnes.