LAS VEGAS – Perhaps the last time that boxing was a pure pursuit of athletic competition for Oscar De La Hoya was before he won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
Since then, the Golden Boy’s ring pursuits mainly have been about ringing up the cash register. And he definitely has been successful in that arena.
De La Hoya is the most bankable star in boxing. He runs his own company, Golden Boy Enterprises, which includes his boxing promotions business, interest in several U.S. Spanish language newspapers, real estate holdings in California and New York and a charitable foundation.
De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) has won world titles in six different weight classes, stretching from junior lightweight to middleweight over a 16-year pro career. But in that time De La Hoya has come up short in some of his biggest matches, including a questionable loss to Felix Trinidad in a welterweight title bout, two losses to Shane Mosley (at welterweight and junior middleweight), a KO loss to Bernard Hopkins at middleweight and a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
When De La Hoya steps into the ring against Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs), the WBC lightweight champion and No. 1 pound-for-pound best boxer in the sport, in a 12-round welterweight showdown at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on HBO Pay Per View Saturday night, he will again be involved in another high-stakes match. But this one has major implications for both his legacy as a bankable boxing star and a ring legend.
“I will be extremely, extremely disappointed if this fight doesn’t end in a knockout,” De La Hoya said. “It will be a disaster for me.”
De La Hoya chose Pacquiao, who will be fighting in his third different weight class this year, knowing that the Filipino champion would be jumping two weight classes. Pacquiao began his career at 106 pounds and fought at lightweight for the first time in June when he defeated David Diaz for the WBC title. At Saturday’s weigh-in, Pacquiao weighed 142 pounds, while De La Hoya weighed 145.
De La Hoya, who hasn’t fought at welterweight since 2001, and Pacquiao have discounted the weight and size difference as being a major factor in tonight’s outcome.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s longtime trainer and De La Hoya’s trainer for the Mayweather fight, said De La Hoya will have more trouble from coming down in weight than Pacquiao will have from going up. “You look at the history of boxing, guys coming down in weight have problems,” Roach said. “Roy Jones came back down from heavyweight and got devastated. Ray Leonard came down to fight Terry Norris and got devastated. When guys fight at a higher weight and come down to their original weight it doesn’t add up too well for them.”
Roach thinks Pacquiao’s speed will counteract De La Hoya’s power, which Roach says is concentrated in his left hook. De La Hoya will have a new corner for this fight. He decided not to go with Floyd Mayweather Sr., and instead has selected Ignacio (Nacho) Beristain, who trains Juan Manuel Marquez and was in Marquez’s corner for both his matches against Pacquiao. He also brought in legendary trainer Angelo Dundee.
De La Hoya has had problems with stamina in previous matches and faded in the stretch against Mayweather, who like Pacquiao has quick hands and quicker feet. If De La Hoya can’t get to Pacquiao in the early rounds, it could be a long, and disappointing, night.
Roach is counting on that.
“We won’t be able to knock him out with one punch,” Roach said. “We’re going to break him down, wear him out and then knock him out.”
