I thought he showed toughness and heart in some fights when he needed to. He let it all out in the last round against Quartey, gritted it out against Vargas. As bad as his performance was, he did fight hard in the latter rounds against Sturm and show some heart. He fatigued against Trinidad and stayed away (his corner's instructions have been overblown, they told him to box but still make sure he won the rounds). Maybe it was for the best as he was tired. The Hopkins fight is a question mark to many. DLH didn't show much against Pacquiao, but then again he didn't have much either. Overall I wouldn't say he was a mental midget or lacked guts. He did have a tendency at times to go into a shell when tasting leather and to look for an opening (waiting for a mistake) rather than to take more risks of being more offensive. It depended on the fight. I think it was Donnybrook who said something about him that I thought was valid. No one likes getting hit but DLH is one of the guys who'll freeze a bit when getting hit rather than to take one to give one.
I would agree with most of that. He was not an out and out warrior he was a little more calculated than that. If he took some bad shots he would change the game plan. I do not think anyone can really question his heart or courage - look at him after that fight that hurt. I spent a small fortune going to NYC this year to watch the Jones V Calzaghe fight and although I was happy Joe won you cannot help but think this guy (jones) shouldn't be in the ring, it's not the same dude of years gone by and the same goes for Oscar. It's sad to see a once great fighter taking a beating like that - but its not the first time and it sure as hell will not be the last time it happens. I guess its just part of the sport. It seems to be "cool" to hate on Dela these days.
Dela's shown heart many times, he's not totally heartless. He's just a bit old and a little bit gay. Pacman hates old gays, and it showed.
I think it's always been cool to hate on Dela. He was the main $$ man in boxing for so long, and milked it. Unfortunately he milked it once too often. But he's been annoying enough to garner a reasonable amount of hate through the years, as has Roy. I always felt Tito had more overall respect than either when they were all prime, because Tito took hard challenges yet wasn't ever as good as those 2.
