Pacquiao Destroys De La Hoya

So, as per tradition, I went home to New Jersey this weekend so I could watch the De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight with my folks. I try to watch all the Pacquiao fights with my dad, as well as any fights out there that is worthy of PPV bucks (Margarito-Cotto from a few months ago for example). Manong Marlon and Manang Ritchie joined us for dinner and the fight and we settled ourselves in the basement after we ate to watch the undercard.

Come main event time, my mom disappeared as she got too nervous and watched the fight from the master's bedroom. She really had nothing to worry about as Pacquiao dominated De La Hoya the entire fight en route to an 8th round T.K.O. I had no worries to be honest with you, because the moment I heard De La Hoya had rehydrated to only 147 lbs for fight night and Pacquiao was actually going to be heavier by 1 and a half pounds, I knew it was pretty much over for the Golden Boy.

Listen, there are a few things which cannot be taught and are pretty much given by God - two of those are size and speed. Both also happen to be relative measures. De La Hoya's biggest advantage going into the fight was size - he was four inches shorter and he was expected to be about 10 to 15 lbs heavier than Pacquiao by fight night. De La Hoya's knockout power has virtually disappeared but as long as you are the bigger guy, you have that advantage. By actually coming in lighter in weight than Pacquiao, he gave up the size advantage. And speed - my goodness, that advantage was Pacquiao's in spades.

When TJC and I watched the De La Hoya-Mayweather fight a year and a half ago, I came to the conclusion Oscar did not want to get hit anymore. In order for him to beat Mayweather, he had to eat a few punches and get in close to Pretty Boy Floyd. Instead, Mayweather counter punched him to death. De La Hoya would connect, Mayweather would connect with a flurry of counter punches and De La Hoya would back up not wanting any part of it. This fight just confirmed that conclusion; this time Oscar didn't even get the opportunity to be counter punched. He was beaten to the punch literally every time. The speed and power advantage was just too much and by Round 4 or 5, you could tell Oscar did not want any part of this anymore. By Round 6, it was getting worse. In Round 7, Oscar stopped fighting back and just took continuous punishment from Manny. I was yelling at the TV for the ref or Nacho Beristain (Oscar's Trainer du jour) to stop the fight - a fighter's health and safety should be the top priority. Finally, the inevitable happened after the 8th round as Oscar did not answer the bell to start the 9th as Nacho stopped the fight.

Is Oscar done? He sure looked it. He could not pull the trigger even more than he had in his recent fights (when he was gunshy already), and he was beaten all over the ring like a redheaded step child. De La Hoya had NEVER been beaten this badly in any of his fights. Maybe one last fight next Cinco De Mayo and then call it a career?

As for Pacquiao, he's already the best boxer in the world and he conceivably could take over De La Hoya's mantle as the top draw in the sport (He won't be as huge a draw as Oscar though, I think. Oscar had a lot of other things going for him besides his boxing skills. But I am glad he is following the De La Hoya path of taking on the biggest fights possible). The talk is Ricky Hatton is next, but maybe Top Rank can throw enough money at Mayweather and get him to unretire. That would be a TREMENDOUS fight and break the bank, I think; it would be the biggest Boxing fight in terms of money and PPV buys in recent memory not involving Oscar. It needs to happen.