LAS VEGAS — Oscar De La Hoya might have beaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. had he stayed with his jab and found a way to land a left hook or two. He would have beaten Felix Trinidad if he hadn’t decided to run instead of fight in the last few rounds, and he might have gotten the best of Shane Mosley if he hadn’t faded late in their two fights.
One common theme emerged after all of those losses — it always seemed to be someone else’s fault.
“It’s his nature,” said Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach. “He’s never been a man who blames himself. He’ll always blame someone else.”
There will be plenty of blame to spread around Saturday night if De La Hoya can’t beat an undersized Pacquiao in a 147-pound fight even the oddsmakers expect him to win. Unlike De La Hoya’s fight last year against Mayweather, though, Roach won’t be a target of it because he’ll be in the opposite corner doing everything possible to carry Pacquiao to victory.
He’ll settle for a decision win. But what Roach would really like is a knockout that could bring an end to De La Hoya’s long career.
“I go through scenarios before I go to bed every night,” Roach said. “I can’t sleep until I come up with the right ending. And it always ends with Manny knocking him out.”
Part of Roach’s confidence comes from the knowledge that Pacquiao is supremely talented, so good that many in boxing have given him the mythical title of the best pound-for-pound fighter in the game. The other part comes from training De La Hoya for several months to fight Mayweather, and seeing what happened just before his fighter went into the ring.
“He’s so tight,” Roach said. “I’ve never seen a fighter so experienced be so tight before a fight.”
De La Hoya vigorously disputes that and points to a number of wins in big fights against Julio Cesar Chavez, Fernando Vargas and Pernell Whitaker, among others. But he hasn’t won a significant fight since knocking out Vargas six years ago. At 35, De La Hoya needs a spectacular performance against Pacquiao if he expects to keep fighting for the huge purses he has been so accustomed to getting every time he steps into the ring.
De La Hoya the fighter knows that. Just as important, so does De La Hoya the promoter.
“I will be extremely, extremely disappointed if this fight doesn’t end in a knockout,” De La Hoya said. “It will be a total disaster for me.”
Pacquiao weighed 142 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in, well below the welterweight limit, while De La Hoya was 145.
The scheduled 12-round fight from the MGM Grand hotel-casino will be lucrative for both fighters, thanks to a $54.95 pay-per-view price tag that will generate millions of dollars even in a bad economy. Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 knockouts) is guaranteed $11 million, while De La Hoya (39-5, 30 knockouts) could easily double that with his percentage of the profits.
Pacquiao is the type of fighter De La Hoya welcomes. Pacquiao has fought with full force ever since his debut 13 years ago as a 106-pounder in his native Philippines. He won his first title at 112 pounds and his last at 135 pounds when he stopped David Diaz in the ninth round in June in his first fight at lightweight.
But he’s never been in the ring against a fighter as big as De La Hoya, who has fought as high as 160 pounds and is coming down to welterweight for the first time since stopping Arturo Gatti in 2001.
An entire nation will be holding its breath on the outcome of this one. Pacquiao is a hero in the Philippines, mobbed everywhere he goes and beloved for staying close to his humble roots even while becoming the country’s biggest sports star.
“You sacrifice and dream about a fight you can win,” Pacquiao said. “It’s hard to explain how happy I am now.”
