De La Hoya?s conqueror makes fools of pundits
Manny Pacquiao versus Oscar De La Hoya was supposed to be a mismatch. It was ? but the other way round.
The Filipino stepped up two weight divisions to smash De La Hoya, the golden boy of boxing, in a one-sided welterweight bout in Las Vegas on Saturday.
In the promotional publicity, 14 of 17 boxing journalists tipped De La Hoya. So too did legendary trainer Angelo Dundee, who worked with Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard. He was an adviser to De La Hoya.
?I bumped into Angelo before the fight,? says Stan Christodoulou, one of the three judges at ringside. ?They thought they were going to stop him.?
That?s what the adage says: a good big ?un will always beat a good little ?un. Obviously it doesn?t always happen, but for goodness sake, Pacquiao started his career in the same division as flyweight Baby Jake Matlala. It?s surely safe to say Matlala would never have beaten, say, Roberto Duran.
So what happened last weekend? De La Hoya, now 35, was competitive against Floyd Mayweather in their blockbuster in May last year, but his legs seemed to fade in the second half of a fight he lost by a split decision.
In May this year, De La Hoya won a shut-out decision against Steve Forbes, a former junior-lightweight, but even then, the writing was on the wall.
Every fighter has a sell-by date, and De La Hoya is surely past his.
It happened to Muhammad Ali, who lost every round before quitting against Larry Holmes in a comeback fight in 1980. Mind you, Ali had reportedly already been diagnosed with Parkinson?s (the medical report was swept under the carpet for the fight to go ahead). And he was 38, a veteran of 59 fights and 530 rounds. And, unlike Pacquiao, Holmes wasn?t a virgin to the weight division.
De La Hoya went into this bout with 44 fights and 300 rounds to his name, and he couldn?t last the distance against a featherweight who had had just one fight at lightweight.
De La Hoya is boxing?s single biggest drawcard, but where does his legacy stand? He?s a man who fought some of the best of his era ? Sugar Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins, Fernando Vargas, Felix Trinidad, Ike Quartey and an ageing Julio Cesar Chavez. A proven warrior, he received some fortunate decisions, like against Pernell Whitaker and Quartey and in the mid-1990s he also conveniently avoided Kostya Tszyu, who had beaten De La Hoya as an amateur.
No matter how you look at it, De La Hoya is a proven warrior, even if one doesn?t rate him alongside Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler. In my book he falls short, although he would have given his best and been competitive. Christodoulou doesn?t believe De La Hoya was shot as much as Pacquiao was too good. ?I?ve never seen a fighter like him. You can?t work out his style. He adapts and adjusts to his opponent?s style. He (Pacquiao) doesn?t even know what he?s going to do next. He just fights according to the situation, he reacts to what?s happening in front of him. He?s unique,? says Christodoulou, who believes Pacquiao will hold his own against the world?s top welterweights.
Yet at featherweight he would struggle against two-time opponent, Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez. Their first bout ended in a draw, and in the second in March, Pacquiao won by split decision.
Boxing is all about styles, but there?s no doubt that Pacquiao?s victory makes the most financial sense.
There?s talk of him fighting Englishman Ricky Hatton at junior-welterweight, and even of Mayweather returning from retirement to take on the Pacman. Those are the potential money fights ? De La Hoya versus Pacquiao, a non-title bout, was the highest grossing pay-per-view boxing show this year, raking in some 70-million. The irony is that the toughest foe for Pacquiao could be WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, but you can be sure that boxing will follow the money. It always has.
