Boxers defending legacies in key bout

For all his success, Oscar De La Hoya has lost his three biggest fights.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
No middleweight, not Sugar Ray Robinson or Jake LaMotta, Emile Griffith or Marvin Hagler, equaled Bernard Hopkins' 18 successful defenses of the 160-pound title.
No fighter outside the heavyweight division has ever had the earning power of Oscar De La Hoya. Through six weight classes, he has left each with a championship belt, although not always one from a major sanctioning body.
Each man has left his mark. Yet the legacy of each figured to hang on Saturday night's main event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where De La Hoya (37-3, 29 knockouts) and Hopkins (44-2-1, 31) fought for the undisputed middleweight title.
The fight was not completed in time for this edition.
Glaring defeats
For all his success, De La Hoya has lost his three biggest fights, to Felix Trinidad in 1999 and twice to Shane Mosley, in 2000 and 2003. Many dispute the majority decision given to Trinidad, but there is no disputing the loss in the record book.
A win Saturday night for De La Hoya, in only his second fight at middleweight against the division's long dominant figure, would overshadow those losses and elevate De La Hoya in boxing history. A loss would make him 0-4 in big matches.
"I've learned over the years that you are only as good as your last fight," De La Hoya said. "This will make my legacy, beating Bernard in the fight of my life."
Said Bob Arum, De La Hoya's promoter: "If Oscar wants to have a legacy of true greatness, he has to beat Hopkins. If he loses, people will recognize him as an extremely good fighter, certainly a Hall of Fame guy, and certainly the biggest attraction of our time."
On the line
What does Hopkins have to prove? That he can beat a big-name fighter. Until he defeated Trinidad in 2001, Hopkins, despite all his triumphs, was best known for losing to Roy Jones in 1993. Much like Jones himself, Hopkins has been in a division bereft of great talent. There has been no Ray Leonard or Thomas Hearns to grant legitimacy to Hopkins' dominance.
Where others see a negative, however, Hopkins sees a positive.
"Bernard Hopkins has his own era," he said, speaking of himself, as usual, in the third person. "Leonard, Hagler, Hearns had their own era, but they shared the glory and the spotlight. Their era wasn't complete without each other. For today's middleweight division, I feel I don't have to share. History will consider this the Bernard Hopkins era."
Only if he wins.