FightHype.com takes you back in time to revisit all the action of fights gone by. In this unique series, get a firsthand look at what it's like to experience the physical, mental and emotional ups and downs of a professional prizefight. Find out what the fighters were going through before, during and after the fights as they relive some of the highlights of their most memorable bouts. On February 26, 2000, welterweight contender Derrell Coley went toe-to-toe with the Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya, who was fresh off of the first loss of his career. Check out how Derrell Coley remembers what turned out to be one of the most definitive moments of his career.
TRAINING CAMP
I trained in Vero Beach for the fight. I'm not a guy to make excuses for a fight, but I went to camp on December 4th in Vero Beach, Florida. I went to camp on December 4th, 1999, preparing for the fight on February 26th, 2000. I told my trainers in my corner, because it was guys I had worked with my entire boxing career, I said, "Let's do what got us here. We don't need nothing new." They promised me we would keep it the same. Two weeks into December, they had me boxing 10 rounds 3 times a week, and I was like, "Leonard, man, I don't need to be boxing this much. What are you doing?" I was completely burned out for the fight. I can remember getting on the scale on January 15th or 16th and weighing 148 pounds. I was 1 pound away from fight weight and I had about 8 weeks left to go for the fight. I was crying man because I just remember him not letting off of me and I knew I had peaked too soon. To be honest with you man, my trainer always told me he was a better fighter than me, and I looked up his record one day and he had 1 win and 8 losses. I realized it was jealousy; I was like, "So what? You were a better fighter; good for you." I didn't care if he was a better fighter than me because one thing a lot of people didn't know is I didn't even like boxing. I only boxed because I wanted to prove to my brother that I can fight. Leonard always told me he was a better fighter than me. At the time he was telling me that, I was 28-0 and ranked #1 in the world. I was campaigning at the time for the fight with Oscar De La Hoya. I was boxing 10 rounds, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I told him, "If I can box 10 rounds today, you know I can box 10 rounds the next day. What is the problem?" I felt like my trainers and my managers were going against me. My manager would just say, "Listen to your trainer; listen to your trainer."
The guy in Vero Beach that ran the gym, and I forgot his name now, talked to me like 4 years after the fight and he said, "A lot of fighters come to my gym and I've never seen a fighter with so much talent be trained so wrong for the biggest fight of his life." He said, "Derrell, I couldn't say anything man, but everything you were saying was right and they were going against you." He asked why I never got different trainers in my corner. I'm a loyal person. I felt like they got me to that point and they deserved to take me over the ladder. To this day, they deny overtraining me for that fight.
PRE-FIGHT
I made the fight because I was very cocky at the press conference; I really felt that I could beat him. After they heard me speak to the media at the press conference, the tickets started selling. They said they had never seen an underdog that confident in their life. Me and Oscar are cool. We're friends. I spoke to him about a year ago, so it wasn't anything personal, but I did believe that I could do all of the things I was saying I could do. I was De La Hoya's mandatory for 2 ½ years man. Usually, you're a mandatory for 9 months tops and I was his mandatory for 2 ½ years. They wouldn't give me that fight. We're finally there and the day before the fight, we are at the weigh-ins and Oscar De La Hoya didn't make the weight. I weighed in at 146 ½. When De La Hoya got on the scale, the thing hit the top of the beam. He said 147 and they gave De La Hoya something to drink. At this time, I'm pissed because I know they are lying. They have a picture out there with me looking over Oscar's shoulder at the scale. Any fighter can guesstimate someone's weight when they are looking at them. I can look at him and tell he was big. I told my people, "Watch the scale because he looks big." The beam is at the top and he never made the weight. I didn't get any sleep that night because I was so frustrated and upset because they got me this far and now that I was there, they were gonna cheat me.
THE FIGHT
When I got to the fight, I was so depressed and burned out because of the way boxing treated me, I didn't even want to fight, to be honest. I could care less. I felt like I had been treated badly in boxing. My body was exhausted going into that fight. If you watch the fight, I had De La Hoya hurt in the 4th round. He had never fought his way out of trouble before. I threw my last punch and I wanted to quit because I was so exhausted. I can't even remember what my corner was telling me. Even when I watch the tape, I don't pay attention to what they were saying because I was so pissed at them because of the position I was in going into the biggest fight of my life. I really wasn't paying them no attention. What really made me mad was I was in the dressing room before the fight and I was the only one in there not nervous. My trainer was so nervous. I felt the nervous energy in the room. I cut the music off and I told everybody, "I'm the only one fighting and I'm the only one not nervous. If y'all are scared, then get out of here right now." I didn't want anybody around me that was scared and everybody started clapping. If you watch that fight again, you can see me cursing my trainer out coming out of the dressing room. He let one of the inspectors rush us. I said, "Leonard, how is he gonna rush me when they are waiting for me to come out there and I'm not coming out there until I'm ready." He was scared and he let the commissioner put a rush on me, but if I'm not ready to come out, I'm not coming out. I was the one fighting. I was the second most important person in that arena out of 30,000 people. You don't let anybody that has a job for that one night rush me. You just don't do that. I told the guy I was not ready yet and he told me I had to come out. So Leonard is like, "Come on, come on!"
POST-FIGHT
I lost 2 fights out of 40 and I haven't fought in 7 years only because boxing wasn't fair to me. Boxing don't owe me anything, don't get me wrong. I appreciate everything that boxing gave me, but it wasn't fair to me. Keep in mind, when I fought De La Hoya, he was coming off of the Felix Trinidad decision. I was De La Hoya's mandatory when he fought Felix Trinidad and they bypassed me to make that fight. If they gave me step aside money, my manager never told me. Keith Holmes, William Joppy and Sharmba Mitchell are my peers from Washington, DC. I was ranked higher than all of them at one time. I was #2 in the world. Not only did those guys get title shots before me, they lost their belts and got their belts back before I even got a title shot. If you do the research on this, you will see what I'm talking about. I was #2 in the world and Fernando Vargas made his pro debut on my undercard in 1997 when I fought Kipp Diggs. Fernando Vargas was a world champion before I even got a title shot. These are the things that I had to go through that nobody knew. After I fought Oba Carr...I beat Oba Carr and I was due for a title shot with Felix Trinidad after that fight and they robbed me against Carr.
I only fought 3 times after that fight. I didn't want to go through it anymore. I was too depressed. My manager stole all of my money from the De La Hoya fight and I didn't even care. I said, "Let him have it if that's how he feels." I fought my next to last fight and I didn't even care too much. I trained, but I had sex the morning of the fight and then I had a bad outing. And then I said, "Let me fight one more time to make sure that I still got it." I fought my last fight and I looked real good. I looked sharp and fast and I just had to prove to myself that I still had it and that's all I needed was verification that I still had it. I didn't have a reason to fight anymore.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]