Bloodied De La Hoya Wins Title Challenger Comes Off The Mat To Take Crown From Whitaker

Oscar De La Hoya was frustrated through all 12 rounds of the fight. Pernell Whitaker was frustrated afterward.

De La Hoya, in the fight of his young career against the crafty Whitaker, overcame a ninth-round knockdown and Whitaker’s unorthodox style to win a unanimous decision Saturday night and the WBC welter-weight title.

De La Hoya was outpunched and at times outboxed by the left-handed Whitaker, but when the scorecards were added up, he was holding his fourth pro title as the new 147-pound champion.

“I was robbed,” said Whitaker, who came out on the short end of questionable decisions in his two previous biggest fights. “What happened to me tonight was like what happened to me before.”

De La Hoya won by four points on one scorecard and six on two others, despite getting knocked down in the ninth round and finishing the fight bleeding from the nose.

Whitaker, who had vowed to turn back the clock at age 31 and become the fighter he once was, never gave De La Hoya much of a target throughout the fight before a crowd of 12,200 that screamed in pleasure at every punch De La Hoya landed.

Whitaker seemingly believed he had the fight won in the 12th round, spending most of the round circling and throwing an occasional jab at De La Hoya, who threw some of his best punches in the final round.

Ringside punch statistics showed Whitaker landed 232 of 582 punches to 191 of 556 for De La Hoya. Of Whitaker’s punches that connected, 160 were jabs to 45 by De La Hoya.

“It was a blowout, a shutout, I could not have performed better,” the disappointed Whitaker said. “The people saw it, the world saw it. I saw it. I want a rematch.”

“I’m definitely going to give him a rematch, any time, anywhere,” De La Hoya said. “I now know his style.”

Undefeated Raul Marquez beat Anthony Stephans by technical knockout in the ninth round to win the vacant IBF super middleweight championship.