Clear and Present Danger (Oscar De La Hoya’s 1999 welterweight clash with Ike Quartey)

In celebration of Oscar De La Hoya’s fiftieth birthday, RingTV is re-posting choose articles from the September 2022 issue of The Ring, our particular version celebrating the The Golden Boy’s profession. The next article, by current Worldwide Boxing Corridor of Fame inductee Ron Borges, De La Hoya’s epic welterweight title showdown with Ike Quartey, which came about 24 years in the past this month.

IKE QUARTEY REPRESENTED THE FIRST REAL PHYSICAL THREAT TO DE LA HOYA’S WELTERWEIGHT TITLE REIGN, AND THE FORMIDABLE GHANAIAN LIVED UP TO IT IN ONE OF THE GOLDEN BOY’S HARDEST-FOUGHT VICTORIES

Oscar De La Hoya understood what the presence of Ike “Bazooka” Quartey throughout the ring from him meant. It meant, for maybe the primary time in his profession, hazard was lurking solely the size of an extended jab away. De La Hoya insisted earlier than the primary bell sounded on February 13, 1999, on the Thomas and Mack Middle in Las Vegas that he welcomed its arrival.

In a gambler’s city the place most guests come away losers, the undefeated Golden Boy of boxing was pushing all his chips into the middle of that ring. Golden or tarnished? That was the chance Quartey posed that night time.

On the time, the 26-year-old De La Hoya was 29-0 with 24 knockouts, however extra importantly he was an Olympic gold medalist, a winner of 5 world titles in 4 weight courses and 17 straight title fights and the largest non-heavyweight drawing card within the sport. He had already taken belts from the likes of Genaro Hernandez, Julio Cesar Chavez, Pernell Whitaker and Miguel Angel Gonzalez, all formidable champions though thought of flawed in a technique or one other, both by a scarcity of dimension or the ravages of age. Quartey, the undefeated former WBA welterweight titleholder, had none of these points dogging him.

9 months shy of 30, Quartey was a fighter with a piston-like jab, concussion-producing energy, a 34-0-1 report that included 29 knockouts and a wholesome disrespect for golden boys like De La Hoya. There was just one phrase to explain what he was at that second.

“In the event you can see hazard in entrance of you and really feel this man can beat you, you do all the pieces it takes to win,” De La Hoya stated earlier than the combat. “This can be a harmful combat, however I wished it. I wanted this. I used to be shedding my focus. I want harmful fights now to remain motivated. Typically preparing for [these types of fighters] is less complicated than preparing for Joe Schmoe.”

Maybe so, however the issue with “these sorts of” fighters is that they don’t combat like Joe Schmoe. They arrive to the sector with supreme confidence and unhealthy intentions, and nobody felt the latter greater than Isufu “Ike” Quartey, a local of Ghana who had realized to combat within the accepted means. He fought to maintain what little he had.

That was lengthy earlier than he wore $250 sun shades, as he did throughout combat week. It was when he was a avenue child from Bukom, a troublesome neighborhood within the bowels of Accra, Ghana’s capital metropolis. It was there that Ike Quartey first realized the worth of being harmful.

The youngest of the 27 youngsters of Robert Quartey, a court docket bailiff with 5 wives and a hard-earned repute as a avenue fighter, Ike grew up hungry, actually and figuratively. As a child, he as soon as fought savagely to retain possession of a scuffed soccer ball, one in all his few possessions. The child who tried to take it from him was Alfred Kotey, himself a future world champion whom Quartey would observe right into a steamy boxing fitness center to start strolling their twin roads to fame and fortune. However lengthy earlier than he received to his $3 million second with De La Hoya, there was the matter of possession of that scuffed ball to settle.

“You’ve got one thing somebody desires, they take it,” Quartey as soon as stated of his boyhood whereas sitting in a Las Vegas espresso store. “Again there, you combat within the streets on daily basis. You combat for all the pieces. That’s life there.”

Quartey’s combating life within the ring started when he left his father’s crowded house in Bukom as a younger boy to maneuver in with a boxing coach. If one Googles the phrase “Bukom,” the second factor that comes up is “Bukom is thought for its output of profitable boxers to America.” Like Kotey and boxing idol Azumah Nelson, Quartey would turn out to be one other combating export of Bukom.

“I left my home at 7 or 8,” Quartey claimed. “My mom didn’t need me to be a boxer, so I went to dwell with my coach.”

Verifying such particulars of the lifetime of a boy from Ghana is troublesome, however one factor was clear by the night of February 13, 1999: Quartey had realized to combat someplace. And by the point he confronted De La Hoya, he had greater than lived as much as the repute of a brother he by no means knew.

The unique Ike Quartey gained a silver medal as a light-weight welterweight on the 1960 Olympics in Rome when he was 26, practically 9 years earlier than the youthful Ike was born. Whereas Isufu was combating over a soccer ball, his huge brother was off making a dwelling in Mexico. The youthful Ike had no recollection of him, however he knew what he had completed and so took his title and adopted his highway by means of ache to fame, a highway that now had led him to face the American Golden Boy whom he’d grown to hate.

There have been many boxers who resented the celebrity and fortune younger De La Hoya had amassed since turning professional solely six years earlier, however Quartey had one more reason for his emotions. He believed the postponement of their unique combat date three months earlier had been a ploy by De La Hoya to keep away from the destiny that now awaited him. De La Hoya withdrew from the unique combat date after struggling a minimize eyelid in sparring, however the rumor was that he was not in tip-top form and wanted additional time to prepare for the authentic menace that Quartey introduced.

De La Hoya and Quartey lastly squared off in 1999. (Picture from The Ring archive)

Quartey’s enmity was exacerbated by what had turn out to be a 14-month layoff since combating to a disappointing draw in opposition to Jose Luis Lopez, who had dropped him twice. Quartey’s coach claimed Quartey had refused to postpone that combat regardless of struggling with a virus some later claimed was a case of malaria, and he’d later been stripped of his WBA title for selecting to combat De La Hoya for the largest payday of his profession fairly than a lesser WBA-sanctioned challenger.

Quartey got here to consider that not solely had the choice to combat De La Hoya value him his title, but in addition that De La Hoya, who now held the WBC welterweight belt, had solely agreed to face him after seeing he’d struggled in opposition to Lopez. For this, Quartey stated, De La Hoya should pay a steep worth.

“I wish to damage him as a result of he made me mad,” Quartey stated earlier than the combat. “I’m going to beat him like he was my son.”

De La Hoya, however, understood totally what Quartey meant and shortly would learn the way proper he was when Quartey’s stinging jab started to trigger his left cheek to swell and his nostril to leak plasma barely two rounds into the combat. De La Hoya assumed he’d countered that early offensive when, 10 seconds into Spherical 6, he landed a wonderfully timed left hook that despatched Quartey flying backward and down on the seat of his gold satin pants. He skittered alongside the canvas like seed scattered by a farmer however shortly scrambled up, and inside seconds he despatched an onrushing De La Hoya to the ground along with his personal exhausting left. Pictures fired!

De La Hoya had rushed in recklessly, seeking to end Quartey, and missed a wild left uppercut. Quartey countered with a thudding left hook that clearly damage De La Hoya way over Quartey had been damage when he went down.

Following the teachings he’d realized within the streets of Bukom, Quartey attacked wildly as De La Hoya held on, now clearly conscious that his issues about Quartey’s energy had been justified. At one level, referee Mitch Halpern briefly referred to as time to warn Quartey for hitting out of a clinch. That appeared to momentarily ease the harm De La Hoya was sustaining, however Quartey got here again in Spherical 7 and resumed pushing his jab into De La Hoya’s face as if he have been driving nails right into a 2×4.

“I received to determine one thing out, as a result of if he connects, he can knock me out; and if I join, I can knock him out.”
– Oscar De La Hoya

When De La Hoya returned to his nook after that spherical, the left aspect of his face was swelling noticeably and coach Gil Clancy implored him to vary his ways.

“You’ve got higher legs than the opposite man!” Clancy hollered. “Use ’em!”

At this juncture, De La Hoya realized what he had stated earlier than the combat was true. This was certainly a harmful man in entrance of him, one who required clear pondering in addition to exhausting punching to beat.

“I can simply go in and brawl, however is that the good factor to do?” De La Hoya had requested earlier than the combat. “I received to determine one thing out, as a result of if he connects, he can knock me out; and if I join, I can knock him out. I do know what sort of opposition I’m dealing with this time. That is the primary true take a look at of my profession. The six years I’ve been in skilled boxing have been all preparation for this combat. I do know the hazard. Now we see what occurs.”

To that time, what was occurring was Quartey controlling the tempo of the combat along with his jab whereas taking minimal possibilities. One thing needed to be completed to interrupt that sample, and slowly however absolutely De La Hoya did it with using his legs and an ever-increasing punch manufacturing.

Whereas De La Hoya had entered the combat with a wholesome respect for Quartey, he was firmly satisfied the Ghanaian had two vital defects. First, Quartey did nicely in opposition to fighters who stood in entrance of him however struggled in opposition to those that moved laterally shortly. As for the second flaw:

“He doesn’t have one of the best head motion,” De La Hoya opined. “He’s sort of a straight-up, stand-up fighter whose protection isn’t nice. And he tends to fade late. I must capitalize on that.”

In boxing in the present day, the championship rounds are rounds 11 and 12, the extra rounds the place champions are made. So it was on this night time. With Clancy urging him to “present the judges you wish to win the spherical,” De La Hoya started to extend each his motion and his punch output. And as he did, Quartey’s manufacturing started to sluggish and De La Hoya began touchdown extra constant energy pictures. Steadily, he additionally started to grab management of the exchanges.

Quartey nailed De La Hoya with a crushing proper hand halfway by means of Spherical 9, however the champion shook it off and landed a tough mixture in response that appeared to carry Quartey’s offense to a standstill. Quartey’s once-thudding jab was now arriving much less incessantly and in single-file trend whereas De La Hoya started to assault his physique and head with rising ferocity. The tide was turning, rolling in for De La Hoya and operating out for Quartey.

De La Hoya snapped Quartey’s head again within the tenth with a tough left and continued to hold the combat to his challenger in Spherical 11, but the combat’s end result nonetheless appeared to be hanging from a razor’s edge when the bell sounded to open the twelfth and closing spherical.

Maybe sensing he was getting ready to shedding his WBC welterweight title, De La Hoya savagely attacked. Twice he strafed Quartey with scorching left hooks within the spherical’s opening seconds and when Quartey launched a proper hook in response, De La Hoya averted it and nailed him with a counter left that despatched Quartey sprawling to the ground for a second time.

De La Hoya got here again sturdy within the championship rounds. (Picture by John Gurzinski/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

The smirk Quartey had worn for many of the combat was now gone as De La Hoya swarmed him like a household of offended wasps, raining in blow after blow as Quartey stood pinned in opposition to the ropes. As Halpern closed in with concern on his face, Quartey returned fireplace simply usually sufficient to persuade him to not cease the combat, although he would have been justified in doing so.

After a minute-long assault, De La Hoya was spent however had made his level. In probably the most essential second, he had proven who he was. He was not solely The Golden Boy however a “hombre malo.” A baadd man!

Ike Quartey had fought a managed combat during which he took few possibilities and paid for it, profitable the early rounds along with his jab however then frittering away his lead by being outworked and outlanded by De La Hoya. In line with CompuBox stats, Quartey threw solely 41 punches in Spherical 10 and 43 in Spherical 11 earlier than being overwhelmed within the closing spherical, when De La Hoya threw 69 punches and landed an astonishing 41 to Quartey’s 18.

Each fighters celebrated when the battle was lastly over. (Picture by Al Bello/Allsport)

“I assumed Oscar was going to kill him,” Clancy stated later. “He hit Ike with left hooks I don’t assume anyone I do know may take.”

Ultimately, choose Ken Morita of Japan scored the combat 116-112 for De La Hoya and England’s John Keane had it 116-113, a selection shared by most at ringside. By some means, English choose Larry O’Connell gave the sting to Quartey, 115-114, a rating most ringside observers discovered curious and troublesome to defend. Quartey was not amongst his critics, nonetheless.

“[De La Hoya] did nothing,” Quartey stated regardless of the very fact he spit these phrases out by means of a badly swollen proper cheek. “I did all the pieces. All he did was come to outlive and that’s what he did. You noticed the combat. You realize I gained the combat. You realize I couldn’t win a choice in Las Vegas.”

De La Hoya emerged bruised however victorious. (Picture: AFP/AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

Definitely he couldn’t after being knocked down twice and outworked within the combat’s closing three rounds. De La Hoya’s group had analyzed Quartey’s punch knowledge and located he threw significantly much less usually within the late rounds, a reality they might exploit when this once more proved to be the case. 

Curiously, De La Hoya repeatedly ignored his combat plan, nonetheless, even after Clancy’s pleas to make use of his superior velocity and motion to maintain the extra mechanical and methodical Quartey at bay. As a substitute, he usually stood in entrance of his challenger, seeking to commerce punches as if to show some extent. Ultimately, that strategy labored however not and not using a worth.

It was over an hour after the combat earlier than De La Hoya arrived on the post-fight press convention. As he spoke, he rubbed a Dixie cup stuffed with ice in opposition to his left cheek and peered by means of a half-closed left eye as if peeking by means of venetian blinds.

“I assumed I used to be in whole management, however I wished to exit with a bang,” De La Hoya defined. “I wished to show I can combat. I wished to do all the pieces attainable to get a devastating win.”

Clancy conceded De La Hoya “received caught up in it, and confirmed he has the power to combat in addition to field. He confirmed quite a lot of coronary heart, which is what received him by means of, however he spent your complete combat combating Quartey’s combat. If he used his legs, it will have been rather a lot simpler for Oscar, however it was a type of nights he wished to combat greater than he wished to field.”

Three months later, De La Hoya would face Oba Carr, who had given Quartey matches three years earlier, and would knock the Kronk disciple down within the opening spherical earlier than stopping him in Spherical 11.

Quartey didn’t combat for 14 months. When he did, he misplaced and by no means once more appeared to signify the hazard Oscar De La Hoya confronted down in what many consider was his biggest combat.