Freddie Roach showing extreme confidence in Pacquiao.
On December 6th, a mega fight is scheduled to take place at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas that challenges the currently ranked the best pound for pound boxer Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao against the most popular fighter today, in Oscar “The Golden Boy” De La Hoya.
Even though this contest, which was contracted to be fought at 147 pounds, welterweight limit, has generated an incredible amount of interest as all tickets were sold out within hours of their release, it is considered a mismatch by much of the media. Manny is jumping two weight divisions to fight Oscar and conventional wisdom says that he is just too small to be competitive in this bout. Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports went as far as to call it a farce. Vernon Forrest sarcastically suggested that he should fight Juan Manuel Marquez after he beat Sergio Mora in a rematch earlier this year.
But I am here to put a different spin on this fight and give credit to both athletes for making an event that is sure to break all revenue records and all Pay-Per View records of all times. Let’s give some credit to Manny Pacquiao for jumping two weight classes to fight a very strong welterweight, who just last year went twelve competitive rounds with Floyd Mayweather. According to reports, Manny has been working really hard at Wild card Gym in Hollywood. He?s been giving hell to super welterweights in sparring and looked very strong and fast. His coach, Freddie Roach cleaned up the gym to allow Manny to concentrate more on his work; there is a sign on the front that says that gym is closed from 12:00pm till 4:00pm and Manny’s body guard makes sure that nobody aside from team Pacquiao is in the gym during that time. Aside from physical training, Freddie has been the biggest supporter of Manny for this fight; he has been telling to anybody who would listen that Pac-Man would knock out Oscar. If you think that it is his job to boost his charges confidence, think again: as I walked in the Wild Card Gym a week ago I heard Freddie on the phone telling his friend that he bet 10,000 dollars on Manny and plans to double his money on December 6th. Just to make sure, I asked Freddie if I heard him right. He gave me a sly grin and a nod. That and a handshake along with a smile from Manny were good enough, even though I could not stay at the gym, because ESPN was filming Pacquiao for their feature.
Let’s also give some credit to Oscar. He is seemingly in no win situation (aside from making an obscene amount of money for this bout): if he wins easy he is supposed to do so, if he struggles against a much smaller man, he looses credibility, if he looses it will probably mean the end of his career. That’s a lot on the line. Fans and media has always been hard on Oscar: when he beat Chavez it was because ring legend was over the hill, when he out boxed Trinidad he was ridiculed for running in the later rounds and not given credit for clear victory by neither judges nor fans. But despite all of that Oscar is still golden: he is by far the most popular fighter of today, case in point his last outing, a tune up fight with Steve Forbes has attracted 27 thousand fans, a huge gate for any kind of boxing match. Why blame Oscar for taking this fight? He is not a street fighter, he does not fight for a gang; he is a professional boxer, he fights in the squared circle for money and if this could be his last fight, why shouldn’t he try to make the most of it.
Aside from that, Oscar has hired two old legends to help him train. Nacho Beristain, chief trainer and Angelo Dundee who was brought in as consultant are both about to earn the biggest training fees of their lives. Does Oscar need them or is he being charitable? That is the subject for another story. This fight has a lot of story lines and intrigue built into it. Meanwhile my plans are to go to Big Bear next week to check on Oscar’s training camp. I will have more to report then.
