Manny Pacquiao has cemented his legacy as a mega-star by dominating boxing legend Oscar de la Hoya on Saturday Night.
The clash had been touted as a “dream match” by many fight fans however it will be de la Hoya who will be pinching himself after suffering such a comprehensive loss in their clash of the welter-weights, at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.
Pacquiao had a point to prove during this match as many boxing experts had called this fight a complete “miss match” due to de la Hoya being four inches taller. This didn’t phase the Philipino warrior though as de la Hoya was far from his top form, conceding defeat at the start of the eighth round. After Oscar’s corner men and ring side doctors decided the damage done to his left eye was too severe for him to continue, “Pac-Man” was awarded the T.K.O.
The Technical knock out was only the second time that de la Hoya had been stopped in his professional career spanning 16 years. Regardless of the result de la Hoya remained respectful to his opponent. “He’s just a great fighter; I have nothing bad to say about him. He prepared like a true champion.”
Both fighters had to make drastic changes to their weight in order to fight one another with de la Hoya dropping to 147lb for the first time in seven years and Pacquiao having to put on 18lb to jump the huge gap of 2 weight classes to fight for his biggest payoff yet, an astounding $11m. All the extra weight didn’t slow Manny down however and after the match he was certain of what got him the win. “Speed was going to be the key to this fight”.
The “Golden Boy” never really got started in the match and seemed like a shadow of his former self, struggling to defend himself let alone throw a meaningful punch. In truth if Pacquiao had really asserted himself the fight could have finished much sooner but so poor was de la Hoya, Pacquiao never had to. The loss has started rumours that this may have indeed been Oscar de la Hoya’s last ever professional fight, something he says he has come to terms with. “I just don’t have it any more. My heart still wants to fight, but when you physically can’t respond, what can you do?”
Pacquicao’s victory over de la Hoya has generated interest in a big money match against Ricky “Hitman” Hatton, a match which both boxers seem keen to take. Pacquicao’s promoter Bob Arum said: ”I know Ray Hatton, We’ll sit down, we’ll talk, that’s probably the most logical fight to be made - Manny against Ricky Hatton at 140lb. Obviously Manny would want to fight at 140 and so would Ricky. That’s probably number one on the drawing board. But let the kid have a great Christmas and New Year, then we’ll sit down to business.”
Ricky Hatton was in attendance for the fight and was reported to be interested in fighting both of the combatants. However following Pacquicao’s destruction of de la Hoya there is only one person Hatton wants in the ring: “Manny’s proved again that he’s pound-for-pound the number one in the sport and I still might get my dream of becoming the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”
