Manny Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao boxing news

Forget Pacquiao, De La Hoya Needs To Avenge His Losses Or Else Face Margarito

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delahoya465224.jpgBy Chet Mills: With still no official word as to who Oscar De La Hoya will be facing for his final fight on December 6th, it seems as if the leading candidate in the running is small lightweight Manny Pacquiao, the 5’6″ Filipino star. Antonio Margarito, fresh off his 10th round TKO of Miguel Cotto, is apparently in the running as well, although most boxing fans doubt that he’ll land the fight with Oscar.

The fight is a bad match-up for Pacquiao, who will be giving up a lot of size to the 5’11” De La Hoya. In the end, the fight is more about making money for each of them than it is about a fight that is truly a competitive one. Even with Pacquiao’s incredible speed and power at the lower weights, he’ll be in the end simply too small to give De La Hoya a run for the money in the fight. For a lot of fans of De La Hoya, this potential fight has been a lightning rod for criticism, as many of them point out the size differences between the two fighters which favors the bigger De La Hoya by a considerable margin. Indeed, De La Hoya has been fighting mostly at 154, whereas up until his last fight against David Diaz, Pacquiao has been fighting as a super featherweight and going quite well at that weight, with the exception of his two fights with Juan Manuel Marquez.

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De La Hoya vs. Pacquiao in December?

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delahoya4574634.jpgBy Manuel Perez: For most people, the thought of Manny Pacquiao, currently the WBC lightweight champion, every fighting a fighter as big as welterweight Oscar De La Hoya, seemed laughable due to the huge size differences between the two fighters. Indeed, most boxing fans that dared mention such a match up in boxing forums on the internet were quickly ridiculed and laughed off the board.

However, things may have changed with De La Hoya, 35, planning on fighting for the final time in his career in December, and with Pacquiao’s recent move up in weight to defeat WBC lightweight champion David Diaz in a 9th round TKO in June. Now, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is reportedly in meetings with Golden Boy Chief executive officer Richard Schaefer about a December 6th bout between Pacquiao and De La Hoya. For Pacquiao, 29, this fight would work out perfectly, because he’s got an open date around that time with no scheduled opponents. He had been hoping to fight Ricky Hatton at that time, but Hatton isn’t interested instead in fighting IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi in November.

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Is Manny Pacquiao Being Protected From Nate Campbell?

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pac573246.jpgBy Manuel Perez: When Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 36 KOs) was in the process of beating David Diaz last Saturday night to win his WBC lightweight title, a question that was somehow overlooked by the boxing world was why was Pacquiao fighting Diaz, considered to be the weakest of the lightweight champions, rather than Nate Campbell, the fighter considered to be the best by far in the division. The word circulating around the boxing community is that Campbell was considered too dangerous for Pacquiao, and that he would have beaten him.

Having seen Campbell fight on many occasions, I’d have to agree with that opinion. Campbell would be simply too strong for Pacquiao, and could counter him and break him down in the fight, much like Erik Morales did in his first fight with Pacquiao in March 2005.

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Manny Pacquiao vs. Edwin Valero = Another Massacre

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pacquiao4652335.jpgBy William MacKay: Newly crowned World Boxing Council lightweight champion Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 36 KOs) is looking to fight the undefeated super featherweight Edwin Valero (24-0, 24 KOs) on November 8th, either in Las Vegas or Texas, with the WBC lightweight title being on the line. Other than his record, however, Valero, 26, looks little better than David Diaz, who Pacquiao easily dispatched in seven one-sided rounds last Saturday night in Las Vegas. Though this is a fight that would look good to many boxing fans considering that Valero, with his huge glossy record filled with nothing but knockouts, currently holds the WBA super featherweight title.

However, Valero appears to be a product of hype as he’s fought largely no one of any real note, mainly fighting C fighters with a couple of B class fighters mixed in for good measure. He certainly hasn’t been tested at this point in his boxing career, and in his one fight against a good fighter (Vicente Mosquera) Valero was dropped in the 3rd round and had to struggle for the rest of the way, taking a lot of big shots, before pulling it out with a TKO in the 10th round in August 2006.

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Manny Pacquiao Destroys David Diaz

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pacquiao46232.jpgBy Jim Dower: As most people expected, Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 36 KOs) did what he had to do on Saturday night, beating WC lightweight champion David Diaz (34-2-1, 17 KOs) by a one-sided 9th round KO at the Mandalay Bay Casino & Resort, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight had little in the way of suspense throughout, with Pacquiao 29, beating Diaz like a drum in each round. The end finally came in the 9th round when Pacquiao drilled a badly battered Diaz with a short left hand that dropped Diaz on his back flat on the canvas. Te referee Vic Draculich didn’t even bother counting because it was clear that Diaz wasn’t going to be able to get up from the knockdown. The fight was officially stopped at 2:24 of the 9h round. Moments before, Pacquiao had staggered a bloody Diaz with a right-left combination to the head. Four punches later, Pacquiao finally succeeded in knocking a lumped and cut up Diaz down.

Pacquiao controlled the bout in round one, using his superior speed, power and boxing technique to box circles around the limited Diaz. In fact, Diaz looked positively horrid compared to the speedy Pacquiao, rarely landing more than one shot at a time against the Filipino star at any one time in the round. Using his right hook often, Pacquiao was easily able to control Diaz, 32, with that punch alone, though unfortunately for Diaz, he had a lot more punches in his arsenal to go along with the right hook.

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What Does Pacquiao Prove By Beating Diaz?

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pacquiao44455.jpgBy Nate Anderson: As this Saturday’s bout between Manny Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 KOs) and David Diaz (34-1-1, 17 KOs) draws closer, I find myself wondering what’s the point in Pacquiao even wasting his time by moving up and fighting Diaz for his WBC lightweight title. There seems to be no logic to it, since Diaz is largely unknown to most boxing fans, only recently picking up some small notoriety with his narrow 12-round unanimous decision over a badly over-the-hill Erik Morales, who was fighting out of his weight class and had lost four out of his last five fights going into his bout with the bigger Diaz, in August 2007.

Even with those conditions seemingly in his favor, Diaz barely beat Morales. Pacquiao, for his part, had made easy work of Morales in the same time frame, stopping him not once but twice with relative ease. That alone seems to suggest that Diaz is in for big trouble against Pacquiao on Saturday night. Unlike Morales, Diaz has little boxing ability and tends to live solely by his ability to slug it out with his opponents on the inside. His hand speed is poor to say the least, his footwork slow, as if he’s fighting in a big pile of wet sand, and his defense is also quite poor. No matter what way you want to look at this fight, there are no assets that Diaz has with which to deal with Pacquiao’s greater speed, power, work rate, movement and overall boxing skills.

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Diaz-Pacquiao: Shouldn’t Manny Have Fought Marquez Instead?

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pacquiao575335.jpgBy Manuel Perez: With only a week to go before super featherweight Manny Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 KOs) faces off with WBC lightweight champion David Diaz (34-1-1, 17 KOs) for his lightweight crown at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, it’s difficult for me to get too excited about this fight for a couple of reason. The most important reason is simple, Pacquiao is going into this fight having recently defeated Juan Manuel Marquez by a 12-round split decision in March, a fight that Pacquiao appeared to lose in every which way you can lose the fight except for the final scoring.

For most people, other than his legions of fans from his native country, Pacquiao appeared to lose the fight. Okay, it’s fine that Pacquiao is choosing to ignore the vast public opinion in the boxing world and choosing to move on and fight Diaz rather than giving Marquez an immediate rematch, but it doesn’t mean that I like it or accept it. For me, it’s like a person taking math class, say Algebra, for example, and they then fail the class with a D grade. Then, instead of returning to school to take the class, they then move on to pre-Calculus, even though they never proved that they could handle Algebra, much less Calculus.

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Hatton To Fight Malignaggi In November, Denies Rumor Of Pacquiao Bout

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hatton33335.jpgBy Eric Thomas: As much as boxing fans and writers alike would like to see light welterweight Ricky Hatton (44-1, 31 KOs) face pound-for-pound boxing great Manny Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 KOs) in November, that idea was quashed yesterday when Hatton came out and said that he won’t be fighting Pacquiao in November, and had never said that he was going to be fighting him. Instead, Hatton will carry as usual with his plans to challenge IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi for his title in November, a bout that has so far has done little to interest most boxing fans.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, there was a report from the Manilla Bulletin, which stated that Malignaggi would be paid by the Hatton camp to step aside temporarily, and let Hatton take what will likely be the more appealing bout against Pacquiao in November. However, Hatton’s lawyer shot that idea down quickly yesterday, saying in effect that Hatton is under contract for a bout against Malignaggi in November and won’t be veering from that course to fight Pacquiao.

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Hatton vs. Pacquiao For November, Malignaggi To Step Aside?

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hatton33353535.jpgBy Eric Thomas: In the latest boxing news, there is talk of former light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton facing Manny Pacquiao in November in Las Vegas. According to the Manilla Bulletin website, Top Rank’s promoter Bob Arum is talks with Bob Schaefer of Golden Boy about the possibility of a November fight between Hatton and Pacquiao. Of course, for this to happen it would mean that Paulie Malignaggi, the IBF light welterweight champion and the one that Hatton is scheduled to fight in November for his title, would have to agree to step aside and let the Hatton-Pacquiao take place.

Even if Malignaggi would agree on such a thing, which is still debatable, it would likely take a substantial feel for him to do such a thing. After all, Hatton, who hasn’t looked good in quite some time with a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a poor showing in his most recent bout against Juan Lazcano, might very well lose to Pacquiao if they were to actually fight. That would leave Malignaggi with a greatly diminished bout since boxing fans would probably have less interest in seeing Hatton face Malignaggi if he were to lose to Pacquiao, and the cry would likely be for an immediate rematch between Hatton and Pacquiao, thus further causing Malignaggi to even more.

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Pacquiao vs. Hatton: Is This a Sporting Fight?

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By Jim Dower: After watching Ricky Hatton struggle against Juan Lazcano, looking good at times and appearing a little washed up as a fighter at other times, I wonder whether Hatton should opt for a fight against super featherweight Manny Pacquiao. First of all, I don’t think it’s a fight that Hatton could win at this point in his career judging by his recent performances against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Lazcano, fights which seemed to indicate that Hatton was on the downside of his career. Most importantly, however, is the question of fairness.

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