IT'S PRETTY ENOUGH MAYWEATHER BEATS DE LA HOYA BY SPLIT DECISION.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES

Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS -- The event was spectacular, the fight was decent.

But even though the pro-Oscar De La Hoya crowd of 16,200 chanted obscenities after the decision was announced, "Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather Jr. took De La Hoya's World Boxing Council super welterweight belt thanks to what appeared to be a deserved split decision victory Saturday at MGM Grand.

Tom Kaczmarek gave the fight to De La Hoya by a 115-113 score. But Chuck Giampa and Jerry Roth scored Mayweather the winner by respective scores of 116-112 and 115-113.

Fifteen minutes after the decision was announced, Richard Schaefer, CEO of De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, came down to press row and said there might have been a mistake made on the scorecards. There were two sets of scorecards made and one of them had De La Hoya fighting out of the blue corner, when he actually fought out of the red corner.

Schaefer, standing on the ring apron, proceeded to go over the original scorecards one by one and he said that it appeared "it was an honest mistake made by the (Nevada State Athletic) commission," and that the decision stands. Schaefer did say, however, that he would show both sets of scorecards to the Golden Boy legal team just to cover all bases.

Basically, when the scores were transposed to the other scorecard, the colors were transposed incorrectly.

The tale of the fight might have been Mayweather's spectacular defense. Anyone who has followed the career of De La Hoya knows that at some point in every fight, he has found a way to land that vicious left hook to the chin.

De La Hoya did not land it once -- not cleanly, anyway. Moreover, there were times when De La Hoya winged away at Mayweather in a corner. But his punches were often either ducked, or blocked, by Mayweather.

One thing Mayweather said during the promotion panned out: He never got tired, De La Hoya did. And Mayweather appeared to win the championship rounds by landing short, crisp punches while making De La Hoya miss.

"I felt I won the fight," De La Hoya said. "I landed the harder, crisper punches. I felt when I landed my punch, I could see that I was hurting him. I was pressing the fight and if I hadn't pressed the fight, there would be no fight.

"I'm the champion and you have to do more than that to beat the champion. The champion in me wanted to stop him. I was trying to close the show."

Mayweather came into the ring wearing the green, white and red colors of the Mexican flag. His camp members wore T-shirts that said, "Mayweather Loves Mexico." He scoffed at the notion that De La Hoya, a Mexican- American from East Los Angeles, did enough to win.

"I was having fun out there," said Mayweather, who has now won world titles in five weight classes. "It was a hell of a fight. I told fans I would give them a good fight, and that's what I did. It was easy work for me. He was rough and tough but he couldn't beat the best.

"I could see his shots coming. I just stayed on the outside and made him miss. I just fought the best fighter in our era tonight and I beat him."

Mayweather, 30, said before the fight that this would be his last. If it was, he will retire with a 38-0 record.

"Yes, I'm going to retire," he said. "I don't have anything else to prove. I want to start spending more time with my children, and that's what I'm going to do."

Mayweather, of Grand Rapids, Mich., is trained by his uncle, Roger Mayweather. But it was his father, Floyd Sr., who began teaching his son the fine art of boxing when Floyd Jr. was still in diapers. The two are estranged, but Floyd Sr. was at the fight, courtesy of four tickets given to him by De La Hoya, whom he trained for six years.

"I owe thanks to my father," Floyd Jr. said. "He is a great guy."

Said Floyd Sr.: "I thought Oscar won the fight based on the points system. Oscar threw more punches and was aggressive. My son had good defense and caught a lot of Oscar's punches. But I thought Oscar pressed enough to win the fight."

Indeed, De La Hoya was the aggressor, but much of his aggressiveness was ineffective.

Through the first six rounds, the fight appeared to be even. Neither fighter had hurt the other, as both were fighting very well defensively.

De La Hoya brought out his jab, which had mostly been in hibernation the first half of the fight, in the seventh. A couple of times, after De La Hoya had landed two straight jabs, Mayweather smiled. But the points were scored by De La Hoya.

De La Hoya was still throwing his jab in the eighth, and it seemed to open up an occasional right hand for him. But his jab was gone again by the ninth round.

"I could tell when I threw it, it was snapping his head back," De La Hoya said. "And it was working, but then I just couldn't throw it. He's a fast fighter, but my speed also offset him."

De La Hoya (38-5) has waffled on whether he will continue to fight. He had said prior to this fight he would continue, after having previously said it would be his last. But he wasn't sure after absorbing the fifth defeat of his career.

"I'm going to go back home and watch the fight," said De La Hoya, 34. "I'm going to see how my movements were, see how my timing was and analyze the situation."

On the undercard, Rocky Juarez of Houston was in with one of those fighters -- Jose Andres Hernandez -- who possesses medium talent but large heart.

It Juarez floored Hernandez with a right hand in the second round, and even though Hernandez never wavered, Juarez won a unanimous decision by scores of 115-112, 116-111 and 117-110 in a super featherweight fight.

"It was a very, very tough fight," Juarez said. "I dropped him but I couldn't finish because he was still dangerous."

Juarez is 27-3. Hernandez, of Round Lake, Ill., is 22-4.

Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista of the Philippines is 23-0 after pounding out a 12-round unanimous decision over Sergio Medina (28-1) in a super bantamweight title elimination fight.

Both fighters had their bright moments, but Bautista had more. He decked Medina in the sixth round with a left hook and in the 11th round with a right cross.

Medina, of Argentina, was pummeling Bautista with vicious shots to the head in the seventh round before referee Robert Byrd stepped in and gave Bautista a standing eight-count.

Bautista, who was cut over the left eye early, had a point deducted for low blows in the fifth.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Oscar De La Hoya, left, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. went 12 rounds Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

(2) Oscar De La Hoya was the aggressor against Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

(3) "I felt I won the fight," Oscar De La Hoya said after his split-decision loss. "I landed the harder, crisper punches."

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News