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SALUD: DE LA HOYA-PACQUIAO CLOSE TO REALITY By Dong Secuya PhilBoxing.com Sat, 19 Jul 2008 CEBU CITY -- Close Pacquiao associate Rex 'Wakee' Salud says that the previously fantasy-like pairing of the Golden Boy Oscar de la Hoya and current pound-for-pound king Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao is close to reality. Salud, Pacquiao and party arrived in Cebu yesterday afternoon via a chopper from Bacolod City after Pacquiao's sorties to Iloilo and Bacolod to honor his promise to give aid to victims badly hit by a recent typhoon. Salud informed that Pacquiao is leaving for the U.S. on the 24th of this month where he is going to sit down with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, trainer Freddie Roach and possibly Golden Boy people to discuss the possibility of a Dec. 6 fight with de la Hoya. Arum, in an earlier radio interview with journalist Dennis Principe over DZSR, revealed that he had preliminary discussions with the Golden Boy people on the possibility of a De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight and that De La Hoya is looking at four names for his farewell fight on Dec. 6 and these are Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Felix Tito Trinidad, Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao. Because Mayweather has recently retired and Trinidad is hugely overweight, that leaves Cotto and Pacquiao as the remaining choices. Cotto will be fighting the dangerous Antonio Margarito on July 26 and the result of that fight will most likely also influence De La Hoya's final choice of his Dec. 6 opponent. Commenting on the proposed Pacquiao-Soto fight on Nov. 16, Salud said "No, we do not want that fight. What we need now are the big fights. Let Manny fight De La Hoya now and then Hatton afterwards. After that, if Manny wants to retire, then he can retire." If the fantasy-like De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight pushes thru, the two will meet at welterweight limit of 147 lbs. De La Hoya (39-5-0 30KOs), 35 years old, 5' 10 1/2 inches tall, a gold-medalist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, started his professional career at super featherweight (130 lbs) but had fought at junior middleweight and middleweight (154-160 lbs) since 2001. He is the only boxer in history to have won titles in 6 different weight divisions. Pacquiao (47-3-2 35KOs), 29 yearls old, 5' 6" tall, started his career in 1995 at light flyweight (106 lbs) and fought mostly as a flyweight (112 lbs) in his early years. He started fighting at super bantam (122 lbs) in 1999, featherweight (126 lbs) in 2003, super feather (130 lbs) in 2005 and at lightweight (135 lbs) only last month. Pacquiao is one of only nine boxers in history to have won titles in four weight divisions. He also won the Ring Magazine title, his fifth, at super feather but that title is not officially recognized. The weight and height disparity between De La Hoya and Pacquiao were what made this fight unthinkable and unimaginable at first. But don't tell that to Freddie Roach, the revered 2-time trainer of the year who was able to transform the reckless, one-dimentional, always come forward Pacquiao to a two-handed, cerebral wrecking machine. Roach also trained De La Hoya during Oscar's fight with Mayweather last year. ?When I trained Oscar he was just having trouble pulling the trigger and he?s a little bit slow. If Stevie Forbes can hit him as easily as he did, I know Pacquiao will knock him out,? Roach told Sports Chat in an earlier interview. ?I want Manny to weigh-in 140 pounds and then at fight time he?ll be at 145 he?ll have his power and speed. I just don?t see Oscar handling Manny at this point of their careers,? Roach would say. ?Manny told me he?d love to fight Oscar and Oscar has made it public he?d love to fight Manny and I think it?s a big, big fight.? Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.  |
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