Mayweather Wins "Superfight" Over De La Hoya

In the first boxing "superfight" in almost a decade, "Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather defeated Oscar De La Hoya in a 12 round split decision Saturday night in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.

Mayweather used his incredible speed and precision punching to wear down the "Golden Boy" over the course of the fight.

Mayweather was able to pick De La Hoya apart for most of the night, while De La Hoya struggled at times to land solid punches on the elusive Mayweather. Punch stats showed this, as De La Hoya was only able to land 21% (122 of 587) of his punches. Mayweather, on the other hand, landed 43% (207 of 481).

Floyd Mayweather also landed the more impressive punches throughout the night, landing 138 power punches compared to 82 by De La Hoya.

Despite what most felt was a clear dominance, Mayweather only won the fight on 2 of the 3 judges' scorecards. A result that shocked most boxing experts, but not the fans at the fight, where the audience was heavily in De La Hoya's favor. Throughout the fight, the fans would cheer wildly every time De La Hoya threw a flurry of punches.

Unfortunately for De La Hoya, very few of these punches landed cleanly, and most didn't land at all.

On the scorecards Mayweather won, the scores were 116-112 and 115-113, on the scorecard that had De La Hoya victorious, the judge scored it 115-113.

The victory ups Mayweather's record to 38-0 with 24 of those victories coming by knockout. The win also solidifies Mayweather's status as the mythical "best pound-for-pound" boxer currently fighting.

The loss drops De La Hoya's record to 38-5.

3 of those 5 losses have now come in De La Hoya's last 5 fights.

Early on the fight went back and forth, with one fighter seemingly winning one round and then the other fighter winning the next. This made for an entertaining and competitive fight.

In the rounds Mayweather dominated he used his speed and defensive skills to dodge De La Hoya's punches while landing a high percentage of his punches, but never really landing combinations or flurries of punches.

The rounds De La Hoya won, he was able to move forward and cut off the ring while also effectively using and landing his jab. He was also able to occasionally hit Mayweather with flurries of punches, although most of the punches in these flurries did little, if any, damage to Mayweather.

As the fight went on De La Hoya appeared to tire at times, and when he tired he stopped throwing his jab. Despite being urged by his trainer, Freddie Roach, to keep throwing his jab, De La Hoya wasn't able to do so, most likely due to fatigue.

Mayweather controlled the second half of the fight with his quicnkess and accuracy, while De La Hoya struggled to hit the nifty Mayweather, landing fewer than 10 punches in several rounds.

Mayweather said before and after the fight that this would be his final bout, although most experts find it hard to believe that the 29 year old Mayweather would retire while in what most would consider his prime.

If he doesn't retire, Mayweather could look to fight De La Hoya again in a rematch that would again make both fighters millions of dollars. One could also foresee a possible "superfight" with "Sugar" Shane Mosley.

Mosley has beaten De La Hoya twice and sparred with De La Hoya in order to help Oscar get ready for the nifty Mayweather. Mosley is aligned with De La Hoya's Golden Boy Productions and seeing how much money this fight made Golden Boy, it would not be a surprise if they try to strike gold once again, especially now that Mayweather's name and image is more established after his win over De La Hoya.

Few know what is next for De La Hoya, who keeps himself very busy running Golden Boy. It seems to make sense that the only way Oscar gets back in the ring is in a rematch with Mayweather or in a fight against a less talented fighter, as a way for Oscar to have one last "farewell" fight, and payday.