Pacquiao Staying Away From War of Words

By Boxing News - 11/29/2008 - Comments

Image: Pacquiao Staying Away From War of WordsBy Jim Slattengren: World Boxing Council lightweight champion Manny Pacquiao is staying above the war of words that are going on between his trainer Freddie Roach and Oscar De La Hoya, avoiding entering into the battle and staying focused on readying himself both mentally and physically for what may be the toughest bout of his 13 year boxing career on December 6th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs) says “All I know is that I would never blame my trainer for a loss,” perhaps knowing that the public would never buy putting the blame for his loss on his trainer.

What it comes down to ultimately is him and the 35 year-old De La Hoya, who will be sporting a large five inch height advantage over the 5’6” Pacquiao, although both will be entering the bout at the same weight of 147 pounds. De La Hoya, a light middleweight in recent years, will likely enter the ring closer to a middleweight than welterweight, however, and will still have the advantage in weight over Pacquiao.

For his part, Pacquiao has fought as a super featherweight (130 pounds) for the past three years and only recently in June 2008 did he move up to lightweight (135 pounds) to capture the WBC lightweight title in a battle with then champion David Diaz.

Having to put on an additional 12 pounds to move up to the welterweight division, Pacquiao will be making a big step up in weight and it’s debatable whether or not his power will follow him there against De La Hoya.

However, it may not matter, because De La Hoya has been a mere shadow of his former great self in the past five years, losing three of six fights while fighting part time. Of his three wins, one of which (Felix Sturm) perhaps shouldn’t have been a win based on the accounts of many fans, two have come against less than stellar opposition.

Pacquiao, 29, clings to the hope that he’ll still be able to beat De La Hoya and move ahead to what will likely be another huge mega bout against former light welterweight star Ricky Hatton. Even there, Pacquiao will be fighting a division above his new lightweight class and will likely meet Hatton at light welterweight (140 pounds), giving the British fighter a slight advantage.

Unlike De La Hoya, this will be a big advantage for Hatton, because he’s shorter, much more compact and a more dangerous fighter on the inside than Pacquiao. In theory, Hatton will probably try and use his size to his advantage by roughing up the more slender Pacquiao at close range, and out wrestling him on the inside where Hatton will land his short chopping shots.

Against Pauli Malignaggi on November 22nd, Hatton was able to use his superior power, inside fighting ability and short power shots to dominate the much slicker boxing Malignaggi, eventually stopping him in the 12th round. Pacquiao would have to avoid getting drawn into a battle of this type, because he wouldn’t figure to have the size or frame to do well with this type of fighting.

As powerful as he is, his power shots probably won’t have enough on them to bother Hatton or put him into any kind of trouble and for that reason, Pacquiao would have to focus more on boxing, staying in the center of the ring, using his speed and staying away from inside exchanges that would largely favor Hatton.