By Manuel Perez: Former six division champion Oscar De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) is choosing Ricky Hatton (45-1, 32 KOs) to defeat Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) by knockout this Saturday night at MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. You would think with De La Hoya getting savagely beaten in an 8th round stoppage loss to Pacquiao in December that De La Hoya would naturally side with Pacquiao in beating Hatton.
However, according to the sports.inquirer.net, De La Hoya is choosing Hatton and going with his old trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. as being too good. De La Hoya has reportedly given advice to Hatton on how to beat Pacquiao. Some would ask how ‘can De La Hoya even begin to give advice on how to beat Pacquiao when De La Hoya wasn’t even remotely competitive with Pacquiao in their December fight.’
However, De La Hoya wasn’t bothered by Pacquiao’s power in the least, he said after the fight. De La Hoya was just lacking in speed and energy to compete with Pacquiao due to drastic dieting that De La Hoya had to do in order to melt down to the 147 pound weight class.
De La Hoya states that he’s not choosing against Pacquiao because he was beaten by him, because he feels no ill will towards the Filipino fighter.
De La Hoya has always been a straight shooter, so if he says that he feels that Hatton will win by a knockout, you have to believe him. De La Hoya isn’t the type of person that would hold a grudge against someone that beat him, because De La Hoya has always been a forgiving person, even adding former opponents Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins, both of whom beat him during his boxing career, to his Golden Boy Promotions company.
No, De La Hoya is picking Hatton because Oscar has seen what Pacquiao brings into the ring and probably knows enough about Hatton’s offensive and defensive qualities to see that he’ll be able to knock Pacquiao out late in the fight.
Pascal to Fight Diaconu on June 19th
Super middleweight contender Jean Pascal (22-1, 15 KOs) will be stepping up in weight to face World Boxing Council light heavyweight champion Adrian Diaconu (26-0, 15 KOs) in his adopted country of Canada at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, on June 19th.
Diaconu, 30, formerly from Romania, is making his 1st defense of his WBC light heavyweight belt that he won with a victory over Chris Henry a year ago in April 2008. The WBC light heavyweight division is devoid of interesting challengers, however, with the leading contender being Silvio Branco. The remainder of the division is filled with mostly obscure fighters that would likely give Diaconu very little money should he beat them.
Pascal, 26, known for his fast hands, was beaten by Carl Froch in a 12-round decision loss in a fight for the vacant WBC super middleweight title in December 2008. The fight was one of the most exciting bouts in 2008. However, Pascal looked much less impressive in a 5th round stoppage victory over Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas on April 4th.
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