Fight of the Millennium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Fight Of The Millennium was a boxing match held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 18, 1999, to unify the WBC and IBF's world Welterweight championships.
Planned by promoters Bob Arum and Don King, it pitted WBC world champion Oscar de la Hoya, a Mexican-American, versus Puerto Rican IBF world champion Félix Trinidad. It was the last of the so-called superfights of the 20th century.
De la Hoya dominated the early part of the fight, outboxing Trinidad with ease to the surprise of many. However, de la Hoya tired noticeably by the ninth round of the twelve round bout. De la Hoya, on the advice of his corner, thought he had an insurmountable lead on the scorecards and adopted a defensive strategy of evasion. Rather than engage Trinidad, de la Hoya successfully avoided him by continually moving around the ring. Trinidad gave chase, but was unabl to land any telling blows. The strategy backfired nevertheless, as de la Hoya effectively ceded the last three rounds of the fight to his opponent by allowing Trinidad to be perceived as the aggressor.
Although most observers felt de la Hoya had won the fight despite his late-round tactics, Trinidad was declared the winner by a highly-controversial majority decision.
While the action did not live up to the prefight hype, the controversal finish fueled calls for a rematch, which has never materialized.
The bout set the pay-per-view record for a non-heavyweight fight with 1.4 million buys.
