OSCAR DE LA HOYA W12 STEVE FORBES

As public workouts go, it was good enough. Oscar De La Hoya got in a brisk 12 rounds against Steve Forbes, dominated the fight but never looked remotely like stopping his durable and clever opponent. It was one-sided but fairly entertaining, although a smattering of boos in the last round showed that not everyone was satisfied.

The fight, De La Hoya’s first as a welterweight in seven years, presumably sets up a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Reunited with Floyd Mayweather Sr., De La Hoya seems convinced he will turn the tables on his trainer's son; Floyd Sr. insists he will give De La Hoya the formula that will ensure such an outcome. Forgive me for being sceptical.

There were, of course, things to like in De La Hoya's performance. Emanuel Steward even suggested during the HBO commentary that De La Hoya had turned the clock back 10 years. There was not as far out as it might have sounded. De La Hoya’s performance reminded me of the one that he gave when he outclassed Miguel Angel Gonzalez in January 1997.

De La Hoya boxed at a good pace throughout. He looked classy, jabbed nicely and threw some flashy bursts of punches. As Steward observed, De La Hoya had a relaxed look about him. He didn't get tired down the stretch, which was good to see.

These were the positive aspects of De La Hoya’s display. On a negative note, he seemed to be getting hit all too easily whenever Forbes let his hands go. De La Hoya’s face was a bit scuffed-up: an abrasion on the bridge of the nose, a bit of puffiness under the left eye, a smudge of blood from the nostrils, a trace of blood inside the mouth. This was against a boxer who hits well enough to let an opponent know he’s there but who is not any kind of a puncher.

As I watched, I wondered what would have happened had it been Floyd Mayweather Jr. firing those punches at De La Hoya.

Forbes had De La Hoya looking as if he had been in a fight. I hadn’t quite expected that.

De La Hoya won by blowout margins on the scorecards — and it was indeed hard to see how Forbes won a round — but he was having to work for it.

I expected De La to make an attempt to get Forbes out of the fight, and there were moments when he clearly was trying to do this, but at no stage did the underdog look like being stopped. Forbes was able to weather every storm, rolling and riding with the punches, slipping, ducking and blocking. He must have sensed very early that he could not win, but at least he could be defiant, hence the dash of hot-dogging as Forbes shimmied his shoulders, slapped his gloves together and took exaggerated steps across the ring.

Forbes was letting De La Hoya know that he could handle everything being thrown at him — no problem — and I got the feeling that this frustrated De La Hoya a little, a sense that he was irritated at not being able to get rid of this pesky fellow. Afterwards, De La Hoya had the look of a man who hadn’t quite accomplished all that he had hoped to achieve.

Of course, stopping Steve Forbes is a very difficult thing to do. Forbes knows how to fight, has a great chin and possesses plenty of pride. He was looking the worse for wear in the later rounds, cut over the right eye and a bit battered from De La Hoya’s left hooks, but he had made up his mind he wasn’t going anywhere. Forbes even backed off the Golden Boy with a left uppercut in the eighth that had De La Hoya putting a glove to his right eye.

By and large I thought that this was a pleasing exhibition of boxing skills by De La Hoya. It was good enough for complete mastery over a boxer who could be called Mayweather Lite — but the full-strength version is something else entirely.