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.
Pacquiao, however, didn’t do that and skipped over a fight with Campbell for a bout with Diaz. After defeating him, De La Hoya came a calling, asking Pacquiao if he’d be interested in a fight. Of course, Pacquiao, wanting a big money fight, naturally said yes to Oscar.
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?
Comments are closed.