Oscar's night was a short one, and the fans of El Paso couldn't have been happier.
Fighting before a frenzied crowd of some 50,000, Oscar De La Hoya put on a brief but brutally efficient show by stopping Patrick Charpentier of France in the third round to retain his WBC welterweight title fight.De La Hoya knocked down Charpentier three times in the final round, with referee Laurence Cole stopping the bout at 1:56 of the third round after the challenger went down sitting on the canvas from a final right hand.
"Everything worked perfect," De La Hoya said. "I took my time. I was a real professional out there."
It was the fourth title defense for De La Hoya, whose Oscar's Night promotion drew one of the biggest crowds to see a boxing match in the United States since Muhammad Ali beat Leon Spinks before 63,350 in the Superdome in New Orleans 20 years ago.
And it didn't figure to last long after De La Hoya came out from the opening bell throwing a stinging left jab that pushed back Charpentier's head. De La Hoya knocked Charpentier down 53 seconds into the third round with a left hook, put him down again 37 seconds later with a left uppercut and then finished him with the right hand.
"I thought I was better than ever," De La Hoya said. "I had no problems out there. After I hurt him I knew the knockdown was coming."
The fans who screamed De La Hoya's name as he entered the ring dressed in a Mexican cowboy outfit and sombrero had barely settled into their seats and the fight was over.
Charpentier, the top-ranked WBC challenger, had never won a fight outside his native France and found himself cast as the role of the villain before a city that spent a week going wild with anticipation over the fight.
Still, he fought gamely in the first few rounds, although he took far more shots than he landed. De La Hoya was efficient and calm as he stalked the challenger around the ring, digging left hooks to the body and pushing his head back with the left jab.
After the second round, Charpentier turned to go back to his corner and seemed to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
It wasn't to last long, however, as De La Hoya caught him with a left hook in the next round that put Charpentier down. He got up at the count of five but De La Hoya put him down quickly with a perfect left uppercut.
Charpentier got up once more, only to take the final right hand that put him down a third time.