De La Hoya-Pacquiao: A Shameless Money-Grab or a Meaningful Fight?
November 28th, 2008
By Manuel Perez: As the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao December 6th fight fast approaches, I find myself conflicted by this bout, not knowing what to think of it. Part of me is insulted by this fight, seeing it as a rip off fight hardly worth a couple of bucks, let alone $49.95 for the PPV bout. However, the other part of me would like nothing better than to see one or both of these guys slug it out with one another, with the hope that one of them would be knocked out in the process, reducing their status somewhat in the process.
I personally like Pacquiao as a fighter or at least I did until he was given a questionable 12-round split decision victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in March. The honorable thing for Pacquiao to do, I felt, was to give Marquez an immediate rematch and thus remove any question of who the real winner was in the fight.
Instead, Pacquiao moved forward as if he had a mandate as the consensus winner and moved up to the lightweight division where he took on World Boxing Council lightweight champion David Diaz, beating him by a 9th round stoppage.
A good win, to be sure, but the fighter that Pacquiao should have been fighting was Marquez rather than Diaz. If Pacquiao had his mind made up that he wasn’t going to fight Marquez, forgetting about the boxing fans who wanted to see a rematch, then IBF/WBO lightweight champion Nate Campbell, the fighter widely considered to be the best lightweight in the division, is the one that Pacquiao should have been going after rather than the much softer Diaz.
As for De La Hoya, he had ideas of wanting to fight a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr., but when he bowed out, choosing to retire from boxing rather than fight him, Oscar had to reach out for another fighter, someone small like Ricky Hatton or Pacquiao.
Hatton said no, leaving Pacquiao as the one in the enviable position for a mega fight. However, now that the fight is signed and only days away, it’s unclear what the meaning will be for the winner of the fight. Due to De La Hoya’s advanced age, and mediocre ring record in the past five years (he’s lost three out of his last six fights, with one of them – a questionable decision over Felix Sturm – among them and two of the other wins coming over a faded Ricardo Mayorga and a 5’7” light welterweight Steve Forbes.
In other words, De La Hoya’s victories have been pretty empty ones. Rather being bold and going out in style by facing someone like Margarito, Cotto or Williams, De La Hoya has sought out the best fighters in the lower weight classes to fight, ones that are still the best, unlike Oscar.
This is what puts me off for his fight with Pacquiao, because it seems like an act of cherry picking rather than a fight that is considered a fair fight. If the fight does turn out to be competitive, however, it will only be because of De La Hoya’s faded ability rather than supreme skill of Pacquiao, because who in their right mind could see Pacquiao beating a prime De La Hoya or someone like Margarito, Paul Williams or Miguel Cotto?
Tags: 10 Responses to “De La Hoya-Pacquiao: A Shameless Money-Grab or a Meaningful Fight?”
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If your are marquez fan then keep crying…..
my goodness stop whining!! just wait and pacman will give marquez his rematch after ricky hatton… if you think this fight is worthless then don’t watch it..nobody’s forcing you..
As an American fight fan I believe Pacquiao will defeat ODLH & do so convincingly. He seems to be approaching his natural weight for his age. In fact he looks more like a brown, smaller & more ripped Mike Tyson than he does an overblown lightweight. Much has been made that he won his first fight at 106 pounds but that was many years ago when he was a teenager. For a parallel one should look at the Olympic Roy Jones Jr. & his subsequent weight gains. This will turn out to be Oscar’s last stand. I admire him & his style but his time is (nearly) over. I’ll be watching on big screen in a mall theater in The Philippines for the princely sum of $6.00 (eat your hearts out all you Americans still in USA & paying $50.00 to watch on your living room TV).
DeLaHoya from hear on in his last couple of fights will be all about the money. But the money with lower weight fighters. He is getting older and he is not going to take tough fights like Margarito or Cotto. He is going out taking fights where he is expected to be the winner
I personally don’t have a problem with Pacquiao taking the Diaz fight. He has fought the top guys in every fight for the last few years(including Marquez twice!), I can’t think of anyone else who has been that consistent in taking Marquee bouts. If anyone deserves a tune up fight it’s him.
I believe De La Hoya will use this fight as a springboard to call out Hatton, another fight with strong international interest.
Also, lets get serious here, Cotto or Margarito would murder de la hoya, wh I really do think is over rated. It does not make sense to take a pasting for his final fight deos it??!
His record of late is appaling.
I do not want to rub anyones face in it, but we only pay £14.95 for PPV fights, which I believe is $30?? Why do you pay so much stateside? Surely this is one of the reasons why boxing is suffering at present….
and just to add, if alot of these missed opportunitys were actually put together we wouldnt have to rely on these exhibition fights to give us our main boxing entertainment of the year
I think you hit the nail on the head in there when you said what the outcome will actually mean.
These are fun and exciting fights no doubt but i want to see fights with a little more meaning. It is a sport at the end of the day and these are just glorified exhibition fights. Like a freindly in soccer, 90 minutes of sport but the result means nothing in the form of progression.
What is beginning to anger me is that theres loads of top quality fights out there not happening because of money. Moneys good but the boxing should come 1st. Theres loads of pairings that can be made for fights with boxers that deserve a chance but they are not being made for lots of reasons that all comes down to money and i find it a disgrace.