Manny Pacquiao somehow got his hand on a pair of signed boxing gloves inside a box recently as he was doing some promotional stuff for his Dec. 6 battle with Oscar De La Hoya.
The signature was that of De La Hoya himself, who scribbled a short message to the Filipino star, who, in turn, smiled upon reading what was written in black sharpie with a matching smiley.
It read: “Manny, I am going to knock you out! Oscar.”
Pacquiao lit up but he immediately wiped the smile off from his face when he realized that their scheduled 12-round welterweight tiff is no laughing matter and that while it was such an inventive stunt, he was not amused.
De La Hoya, who has been training like hell like Pacquiao the past month, can?t wait to get up the ring at the MGM Grand, where a sellout crowd of 16,000 will be on hand.
“(I am) gonna show Pacquiao who is the boss,” De La Hoya, 35, told Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times, one of over 100 members of the media who went up to Big Bear, California, to check on the progress of the Golden Boy?s high-altitude training.
Angelo Dundee, who called the shots in the corners of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, will be part of Team De La Hoya in a limited but still important capacity.
“I?ve seen Oscar fight about 20 times and Pacquiao about 20 times,” said Dundee, who will play second fiddle to Mexican Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain, De La Hoya?s chief trainer, in an interview with maxboing.com during the Big Bear affair.
“I?ve already picked up a couple of flaws in Pacquiao and we?ll work on that. I?ll be at the fight, right behind Oscar?s corner, but I won?t say much unless I really see something. You can?t have too many cooks doing the soup,” Dundee added.
De La Hoya has nothing but kind words for the 87-year-old Dundee.
“It?s great having him here in camp because of what he brings to the table. It?s not necessarily that he is here doing everyday teaching. But he is an inspiration and just listening to the stories he has to tell of all of the great champions he has worked with is motivation for me.
“To think that I have these two men — Nacho Beristain and Angelo Dundee — in my corner, two legends who combined have trained so many world champions is mind-boggling and makes me train harder.”
De La Hoya said Pacquiao?s status as boxing?s pound-for-pound king is what made him delay plans for retirement.
“I have always wanted to fight the best out there, the most dangerous and the best match-ups. That is how I ended up wanting to fight Pacquiao. He is the best out there. I don?t think weight will be a factor and this is the type of challenge that motivates me.
“Pacquiao is a southpaw with amazing speed. He is also young and powerful,” added De La Hoya.
