LAS VEGAS, Nevada—If there are still doubts whether Manny Pacquiao deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as boxing’s greatest heroes, they were obliterated on Saturday night (Sunday in Manila).
Flaunting tremendous punching power and blinding hand speed, Pacquiao pummeled Oscar De La Hoya to submission, hammering out an eighth-round TKO victory at the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena here to notch the biggest victory of his career.
De La Hoya, his left eye closed shut as he sat on his stool, offered no complaints when his corner decided he had had enough. He got up and walked to the center of the ring to congratulate the victor.
“You’re still my idol,” Pacquiao told him.
“No, you’re my idol,” De La Hoya said.
Pacquiao earned his biggest purse ever, a guaranteed $11 million, while De La Hoya was expected to make at least twice that by the time all the pay-per-view revenues were totaled up.
“I was connecting with everything, he was connecting with nothing,” Pacquiao later said after a crushing, dominating performance at a higher weight level that left a battered fallen legend in its wake.
As sweeping as that statement may seem, his smashing performance on top of the ring in front of more than 16,000 fight fans and a worldwide television audience made it sound like an understatement.
Unloading volume power punches at a blurry pace, Pacquiao clobbered De La Hoya relentlessly until the corner of boxing’s longtime poster boy could take no more, asking referee Tony Weeks to stop the fight before the ninth-round bell.
‘He was the better man’
“He was the better man,” a humbled De La Hoya admitted after the fight. “He’s a great fighter. He deserves everything.”
“Manny fought the fight we were supposed to fight,” trainer Freddie Roach said.
The 29-year-old Pacman hiked his record to 48-3-2 and his knockout count to 36. De La Hoya slipped to 29-6 (30 KOs).
More notable is the fact that of those six losses, the Golden Boy had only been stopped once before—by Bernard Hopkins—and while he was counted out after a shot to the body, he didn’t receive the kind of sustained beating he took on Saturday night.
It was so severe that the 35-year-old former Olympic champion had to be rushed to the hospital after the bout as a safety precaution. But where De La Hoya goes from there became the match’s lingering afterthought.
“My heart still wants to fight,” De La Hoya said on questions about whether this effectively signals the end of his decorated boxing career. “My heart still wants to fight. I love the sport, but physically … we’ll see what comes after this fight.”
2-1 underdog
Pacquiao, the reigning WBC lightweight king, climbed the ring a 2-1 underdog mainly because he was moving two divisions up and fighting a taller, bigger and former 10-time world champion more popularly known as the Golden Boy.
But all that changed as early as the second round, when the 29-year-old Filipino boxing icon uncorked a series of combinations, including one capped by a vicious uppercut that told De La Hoya that the Pacman had carried with him his power when he climbed to the ranks of the welterweights.
In the seventh round, Pacquiao chased De La Hoya from one corner to the other with a barrage of blows so unrelenting, even those who were watching the fight found it hard to keep pace.
The first Asian to win title in four divisions rocked De La Hoya in one corner and at one point, during a series of combinations, had the Golden Boy sitting on the ropes.
When the eighth round came, Pacquiao again took the fight to De La Hoya, who couldn’t jab his way out of trouble anymore. He tried to turn things around with a combination to the body and then later mixing it up with head shots, but he lost grip of the round again when Pacquiao caught him with a stunning four-punch combination.
And with each blow that found its mark, a layer of greatness was stripped off the American boxing great, leaving trainer Nacho Beristain with no choice but to put an end to the beating.
“I did not want to leave his greatness in the ring,” Beristain said.
And almost instantly, Pacquiao’s own legend was cemented amid a sudden explosion of cheers and flashbulbs.
Pacquiao entered the ring with his only hope resting on the wing of a prayer whispered by a nation an entire ocean away, one that again ground to a halt the moment introductions were made.
“I thank all my countrymen for their support, I hope I have given you a reason to walk with your help up high, proud that you are Filipino.”
“Let’s not forget that Oscar De La Hoya had a hell of a career,” said Hopkins.
“He is a 10-time world champion and some guys don’t even get to have one.”
Hopkins had earlier said that Pacquiao did not stand a chance against the taller De La Hoya, and he wasn’t the only one who had that view.
Several people had even feared for Pacquiao’s safety, with the media going to town calling it the greatest mismatch ever forged.
“The press was never wrong,” Top Rank chief Bob Arum, who co-promoted the fight with Golden Boy Promotions, said during the press conference. “They said it was a mismatch and it was a mismatch.”
Mismatch
It was, indeed, a mismatch the other way around. Even the numbers crunched out by CompuBox backed that view.
The stats showed that Pacquiao threw more punches, 585-402, and connected on more of them, 224-83.
The stats on the power punches were even more telling.
Pacquiao threw 333 punches and rocked De La Hoya with 195 of them for a 59-percent clip. De La Hoya, on the other hand, unloaded 164 power punches and connected on 51 for a paltry 31 percent.
Over the last three rounds, Pacquiao connected 97 times there against just 21 by De La Hoya, who didn’t have much of a target to work with as Pacquiao moved in and out and kept on weaving from side to side all night.
Judges scored it for Manny
The judges also scored it overwhelmingly in favor of Pacquiao.
Stanley Christodoulou had it 79-72, while both Adalaide Byrd and Dave Morreti scored 80-71, all in favor of the Filipino boxing superstar. And to accentuate the Pacman’s domination of the bout, all three of them scored the big seventh round 10-8 despite no knockdowns scored there.
The Inquirer also had it at 79-72.
“I think Oscar De La Hoya gave everything he had,” said legendary trainer Angelo Dundee. “Oscar was ready to win. He had all the answers (to Pacquiao’s power) but even the best laid plans of mice and men go bye-bye.”
“Pacquiao was the better man tonight,” Dundee added. “I really thought Oscar will win. You brag about it and you hope you’re right. (But) I was wrong.”
Next potential blockbuster
The smashing victory virtually sets up Pacquiao for another potential blockbuster.
He is now on a collision course with junior welterweight champ Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton and their paths may just cross at London’s 100,000-capacity Wembley Stadium.
“That’s a great fight because you have two action fighters right there,” said Roach, who wants his ward to rest for six months before fighting Hatton.
Floyd Mayweather, who also defeated De La Hoya last year before retiring, is also being eyed as a possible foe in what could be a classic battle for boxing’s mythical pound-for-pound throne.
“If it were up to me,” Roach said, “I’d like Manny to fight just two more fights and retire as the greatest fighter ever.”
That may not be that far off. As Bob Arum celebrated on the ring, hugging trainer after trainer and pumping fists at the general direction of press row, the one thing that zoomed through his mind was that this was the second greatest match he had ever promoted.
“(This ranks) next to the night when George Foreman won the heavyweight championship of the world by knocking out Michael Moorer,” Arum said, referring to the fight that made Foreman, at 45, the oldest heavyweight world champion in history.
De La Hoya climbed the ring at 147, just two pounds gained from Friday’s weigh-in.
“Oscar looked like he prepared to make the weight,” Roach said. “We prepared to fight.”
Pacquiao definitely looked the stronger fighter Saturday night. After finding his range in the second round, he peppered De La Hoya with crisp jabs and combinations until the Golden Boy’s left eye started puffing up.
In the seventh round, De La Hoya started losing his legs and it became clear that the night was headed for a shocking ending, even if De La Hoya himself acknowledged the writing on the wall.
“I wasn’t shocked,” De La Hoya said. “It was almost expected. I trained hard in the gym but I told everyone that it’s a different story once you’re in the ring. Manny works on his toes. He waits for me to make a mistake.”
And that was what Pacquiao did, taking advantage every time De La Hoya left him with an opening to work with.
“I was too fast for him,” Pacquiao said. “Speed was the key of this fight.”
“Freddie, you’re right,” De La Hoya later told Roach, who trained him for the Mayweather fight. “I just don’t have it anymore.”
Credits to: Francis Ochoa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:32:00 12/08/2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN ADDITION: ‘Golden Boy’ taken to hospital
LAS VEGAS, Nevada—He was neither here nor there and the underdog was perfectly swift.
After a busted Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya was rushed to a nearby hospital Sunday night, they could no longer pin down the single biggest weapon Manny Pacquiao had used in his ultimate ascent to greatness.
Speed and footwork, a fresh and visibly fulfilled Pacquiao confirmed after wriggling from another pack of interviewers.
Counter-punch and body shots, mumbled trainer Freddie Roach.
Solid team effort, assured Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s beloved deputy trainer and lifetime friend.
There were many winning tools.
The stormy demolition of the great De La Hoya was also totally unexpected.
In fact, there were ungodly stretches when, according to Pacquiao, he could not help but momentarily stall in his offensive.
He said he could not help but take pity on the helpless future Hall of Famer, winner of 10 world crowns in six weight classifications.
“Nakakaawa nga, pero kailangan ko rin ituloy dahil trabaho ko ’yun (I took pity on him, but it was also my job to beat him),” Pacquiao, in a charcoal gray suit, explained.
Actually, Roach said the forced stoppage of the highly favored De La Hoya came at least a round too late.
They should have quit in the seventh, said Roach, who had predicted a ninth-round stoppage by his prized ward.
It’s no secret how Pacquiao had trained long and hard.
In fact, there had been fears of the Filipino boxing superhero getting overloaded and thus failing to utilize all the weapons he had tried to perfect.
“What we did in the gym, all of this, we were able to bring into the ring,” Roach explained in complete triumph.
Perfect execution
For his part, Fernandez bared that the secret behind the perfect execution was solid teamwork and selflessness.
He said they took extra pains and saw to it that Pacquiao would never, never lower or drop his right hand, the best ploy against De La Hoya’s left hook.
They also made sure to take away De La Hoya’s famous jab.
Roach confirmed that Pacquiao managed to surpass himself with a solid defense by making swift shifts to the right whenever under siege.
So how much has Pacquiao improved in defense?
“A hundred and 10 percent, no a hundred and 20,” Roach confirmed.
It’s odd how what had at first loomed an epic challenge to scale a personal Everest ended up as trouble free as uprooting a rusty monument.
Sure-fire talisman
No single weapon to credit for the Pacquiao prizefight masterpiece, the greatest by anybody from the Orient.
But without being asked to, Pacquiao inevitably bared a solemn secret, one sure-fire talisman that has guided him all these years.
“I got you there,” he told boxing man Hermie Rivera, who initially had misgivings about the wisdom of Pacquiao taking on the bigger, more experienced De La Hoya. “Huwag kang magdududa kailanman sa kakayahan ng Panginoong Diyos (Don’t ever doubt the might of our Dear Lord.)”
Credits to: Recah Trinidad
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:18:00 12/08/2008
CONGRATULATIONS MANNY! FILIPINOS ARE SO PROUD OF YOU! YOU ARE THE MAN!
Flaunting tremendous punching power and blinding hand speed, Pacquiao pummeled Oscar De La Hoya to submission, hammering out an eighth-round TKO victory at the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena here to notch the biggest victory of his career.
De La Hoya, his left eye closed shut as he sat on his stool, offered no complaints when his corner decided he had had enough. He got up and walked to the center of the ring to congratulate the victor.
“You’re still my idol,” Pacquiao told him.
“No, you’re my idol,” De La Hoya said.
Pacquiao earned his biggest purse ever, a guaranteed $11 million, while De La Hoya was expected to make at least twice that by the time all the pay-per-view revenues were totaled up.
“I was connecting with everything, he was connecting with nothing,” Pacquiao later said after a crushing, dominating performance at a higher weight level that left a battered fallen legend in its wake.
As sweeping as that statement may seem, his smashing performance on top of the ring in front of more than 16,000 fight fans and a worldwide television audience made it sound like an understatement.
Unloading volume power punches at a blurry pace, Pacquiao clobbered De La Hoya relentlessly until the corner of boxing’s longtime poster boy could take no more, asking referee Tony Weeks to stop the fight before the ninth-round bell.
‘He was the better man’
“He was the better man,” a humbled De La Hoya admitted after the fight. “He’s a great fighter. He deserves everything.”
“Manny fought the fight we were supposed to fight,” trainer Freddie Roach said.
The 29-year-old Pacman hiked his record to 48-3-2 and his knockout count to 36. De La Hoya slipped to 29-6 (30 KOs).
More notable is the fact that of those six losses, the Golden Boy had only been stopped once before—by Bernard Hopkins—and while he was counted out after a shot to the body, he didn’t receive the kind of sustained beating he took on Saturday night.
It was so severe that the 35-year-old former Olympic champion had to be rushed to the hospital after the bout as a safety precaution. But where De La Hoya goes from there became the match’s lingering afterthought.
“My heart still wants to fight,” De La Hoya said on questions about whether this effectively signals the end of his decorated boxing career. “My heart still wants to fight. I love the sport, but physically … we’ll see what comes after this fight.”
2-1 underdog
Pacquiao, the reigning WBC lightweight king, climbed the ring a 2-1 underdog mainly because he was moving two divisions up and fighting a taller, bigger and former 10-time world champion more popularly known as the Golden Boy.
But all that changed as early as the second round, when the 29-year-old Filipino boxing icon uncorked a series of combinations, including one capped by a vicious uppercut that told De La Hoya that the Pacman had carried with him his power when he climbed to the ranks of the welterweights.
In the seventh round, Pacquiao chased De La Hoya from one corner to the other with a barrage of blows so unrelenting, even those who were watching the fight found it hard to keep pace.
The first Asian to win title in four divisions rocked De La Hoya in one corner and at one point, during a series of combinations, had the Golden Boy sitting on the ropes.
When the eighth round came, Pacquiao again took the fight to De La Hoya, who couldn’t jab his way out of trouble anymore. He tried to turn things around with a combination to the body and then later mixing it up with head shots, but he lost grip of the round again when Pacquiao caught him with a stunning four-punch combination.
And with each blow that found its mark, a layer of greatness was stripped off the American boxing great, leaving trainer Nacho Beristain with no choice but to put an end to the beating.
“I did not want to leave his greatness in the ring,” Beristain said.
And almost instantly, Pacquiao’s own legend was cemented amid a sudden explosion of cheers and flashbulbs.
Pacquiao entered the ring with his only hope resting on the wing of a prayer whispered by a nation an entire ocean away, one that again ground to a halt the moment introductions were made.
“I thank all my countrymen for their support, I hope I have given you a reason to walk with your help up high, proud that you are Filipino.”
“Let’s not forget that Oscar De La Hoya had a hell of a career,” said Hopkins.
“He is a 10-time world champion and some guys don’t even get to have one.”
Hopkins had earlier said that Pacquiao did not stand a chance against the taller De La Hoya, and he wasn’t the only one who had that view.
Several people had even feared for Pacquiao’s safety, with the media going to town calling it the greatest mismatch ever forged.
“The press was never wrong,” Top Rank chief Bob Arum, who co-promoted the fight with Golden Boy Promotions, said during the press conference. “They said it was a mismatch and it was a mismatch.”
Mismatch
It was, indeed, a mismatch the other way around. Even the numbers crunched out by CompuBox backed that view.
The stats showed that Pacquiao threw more punches, 585-402, and connected on more of them, 224-83.
The stats on the power punches were even more telling.
Pacquiao threw 333 punches and rocked De La Hoya with 195 of them for a 59-percent clip. De La Hoya, on the other hand, unloaded 164 power punches and connected on 51 for a paltry 31 percent.
Over the last three rounds, Pacquiao connected 97 times there against just 21 by De La Hoya, who didn’t have much of a target to work with as Pacquiao moved in and out and kept on weaving from side to side all night.
Judges scored it for Manny
The judges also scored it overwhelmingly in favor of Pacquiao.
Stanley Christodoulou had it 79-72, while both Adalaide Byrd and Dave Morreti scored 80-71, all in favor of the Filipino boxing superstar. And to accentuate the Pacman’s domination of the bout, all three of them scored the big seventh round 10-8 despite no knockdowns scored there.
The Inquirer also had it at 79-72.
“I think Oscar De La Hoya gave everything he had,” said legendary trainer Angelo Dundee. “Oscar was ready to win. He had all the answers (to Pacquiao’s power) but even the best laid plans of mice and men go bye-bye.”
“Pacquiao was the better man tonight,” Dundee added. “I really thought Oscar will win. You brag about it and you hope you’re right. (But) I was wrong.”
Next potential blockbuster
The smashing victory virtually sets up Pacquiao for another potential blockbuster.
He is now on a collision course with junior welterweight champ Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton and their paths may just cross at London’s 100,000-capacity Wembley Stadium.
“That’s a great fight because you have two action fighters right there,” said Roach, who wants his ward to rest for six months before fighting Hatton.
Floyd Mayweather, who also defeated De La Hoya last year before retiring, is also being eyed as a possible foe in what could be a classic battle for boxing’s mythical pound-for-pound throne.
“If it were up to me,” Roach said, “I’d like Manny to fight just two more fights and retire as the greatest fighter ever.”
That may not be that far off. As Bob Arum celebrated on the ring, hugging trainer after trainer and pumping fists at the general direction of press row, the one thing that zoomed through his mind was that this was the second greatest match he had ever promoted.
“(This ranks) next to the night when George Foreman won the heavyweight championship of the world by knocking out Michael Moorer,” Arum said, referring to the fight that made Foreman, at 45, the oldest heavyweight world champion in history.
De La Hoya climbed the ring at 147, just two pounds gained from Friday’s weigh-in.
“Oscar looked like he prepared to make the weight,” Roach said. “We prepared to fight.”
Pacquiao definitely looked the stronger fighter Saturday night. After finding his range in the second round, he peppered De La Hoya with crisp jabs and combinations until the Golden Boy’s left eye started puffing up.
In the seventh round, De La Hoya started losing his legs and it became clear that the night was headed for a shocking ending, even if De La Hoya himself acknowledged the writing on the wall.
“I wasn’t shocked,” De La Hoya said. “It was almost expected. I trained hard in the gym but I told everyone that it’s a different story once you’re in the ring. Manny works on his toes. He waits for me to make a mistake.”
And that was what Pacquiao did, taking advantage every time De La Hoya left him with an opening to work with.
“I was too fast for him,” Pacquiao said. “Speed was the key of this fight.”
“Freddie, you’re right,” De La Hoya later told Roach, who trained him for the Mayweather fight. “I just don’t have it anymore.”
Credits to: Francis Ochoa
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:32:00 12/08/2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN ADDITION: ‘Golden Boy’ taken to hospital
LAS VEGAS, Nevada—He was neither here nor there and the underdog was perfectly swift.
After a busted Oscar “Golden Boy” De La Hoya was rushed to a nearby hospital Sunday night, they could no longer pin down the single biggest weapon Manny Pacquiao had used in his ultimate ascent to greatness.
Speed and footwork, a fresh and visibly fulfilled Pacquiao confirmed after wriggling from another pack of interviewers.
Counter-punch and body shots, mumbled trainer Freddie Roach.
Solid team effort, assured Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s beloved deputy trainer and lifetime friend.
There were many winning tools.
The stormy demolition of the great De La Hoya was also totally unexpected.
In fact, there were ungodly stretches when, according to Pacquiao, he could not help but momentarily stall in his offensive.
He said he could not help but take pity on the helpless future Hall of Famer, winner of 10 world crowns in six weight classifications.
“Nakakaawa nga, pero kailangan ko rin ituloy dahil trabaho ko ’yun (I took pity on him, but it was also my job to beat him),” Pacquiao, in a charcoal gray suit, explained.
Actually, Roach said the forced stoppage of the highly favored De La Hoya came at least a round too late.
They should have quit in the seventh, said Roach, who had predicted a ninth-round stoppage by his prized ward.
It’s no secret how Pacquiao had trained long and hard.
In fact, there had been fears of the Filipino boxing superhero getting overloaded and thus failing to utilize all the weapons he had tried to perfect.
“What we did in the gym, all of this, we were able to bring into the ring,” Roach explained in complete triumph.
Perfect execution
For his part, Fernandez bared that the secret behind the perfect execution was solid teamwork and selflessness.
He said they took extra pains and saw to it that Pacquiao would never, never lower or drop his right hand, the best ploy against De La Hoya’s left hook.
They also made sure to take away De La Hoya’s famous jab.
Roach confirmed that Pacquiao managed to surpass himself with a solid defense by making swift shifts to the right whenever under siege.
So how much has Pacquiao improved in defense?
“A hundred and 10 percent, no a hundred and 20,” Roach confirmed.
It’s odd how what had at first loomed an epic challenge to scale a personal Everest ended up as trouble free as uprooting a rusty monument.
Sure-fire talisman
No single weapon to credit for the Pacquiao prizefight masterpiece, the greatest by anybody from the Orient.
But without being asked to, Pacquiao inevitably bared a solemn secret, one sure-fire talisman that has guided him all these years.
“I got you there,” he told boxing man Hermie Rivera, who initially had misgivings about the wisdom of Pacquiao taking on the bigger, more experienced De La Hoya. “Huwag kang magdududa kailanman sa kakayahan ng Panginoong Diyos (Don’t ever doubt the might of our Dear Lord.)”
Credits to: Recah Trinidad
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:18:00 12/08/2008
CONGRATULATIONS MANNY! FILIPINOS ARE SO PROUD OF YOU! YOU ARE THE MAN!
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