LAS VEGAS – The Golden Boy is still Golden.
Despite a 20-month layoff, Oscar De La Hoya showed little ring rust in disposing of Ricardo Mayorga last night at the MGM Grand.
De La Hoya dropped Mayorga in the first round and finished him off in the sixth, winning by technical knockout to capture the WBC super welterweight championship before a packed arena and a pay-per-view audience.
In capturing his ninth world title, De La Hoya didn’t lose a round on The Post scorecard. He used crisp combinations and accurate counterpunching to overwhelm the trash-talking Nicaraguan.
De La Hoya, a 2-1 favorite, dropped Mayorga in the first round with a left hook on the chin and then again early in the sixth. Later, with 1:25 left in the round, referee Jay Nady stopped the fight after De La Hoya launched a 21-punch assault that left Mayorga limp.
“I was hitting him with my right hand and he felt the power,” De La Hoya (38-4, 30 KOs) said. “No matter what, I was going to stand up to him and let him know right away that I was here to fight. I had to show the bully that I wasn’t going to back down.”
De La Hoya had not fought since losing by knockout to Bernard Hopkins in September 2004, and it was uncertain if he still had the legs and skill, considering he’d spent much of his time developing his various businesses and having a child with his wife Millie.
But it was evident early that Mayorga was no match for De La Hoya. Mayorga had taunted De La Hoya throughout the promotion and vowed to knock him out. But it was Mayorga who found himself on his backside early in the first round after De La Hoya landed a clean left hook.
Mayorga (28-6-1, 23 KOs) got to his feet, but was clearly dazed. De La Hoya stayed patient and scored with a heavy right hand late in the round that had Mayorga in trouble again.
“The way he was talking about [my] wife and my son, he motivated me to go right at him and fight him,” De La Hoya said.
Fueled with anger, De La Hoya peppered Mayorga with combinations in the second round, landing a clean five-punch sequence that rocked Mayorga along the ropes. Mayorga tried to answer with wild right hands, but De La Hoya easily avoided his desperate punches.
Mayorga landed his first damaging punch with an upper cut that rocked De La Hoya’s head back. But De La Hoya re-established control in the fourth, targeting Mayorga’s body with two digging left hooks.
By the fifth, De La Hoya was scoring at will. His left jab was landing, and his combinations had Mayorga in a constant daze.
“Oscar is a very hard puncher,” said Mayorga, who fought with little strategy.
It was a brilliant showing by De La Hoya, who now must decide whether he’ll stage a retirement fight in September that could be against Floyd Mayweather Jr., the son of his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr.
“I will sit down and talk to my people and think through every scenario,” De La Hoya said.
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Earlier in the night, Kassim Ouma (24-2-1, 15 KOs) survived a first-round knockdown and continued his quest to regain a piece of the junior middleweight championship with a split decision win over Marco Rubio (32-3-1, 29 KOs).
Other winners included: junior welterweight Rock Allen (7-0), lightweight Jorge Paez Jr. (9-0) and junior lightweight Joan Guzman (25-0).
