Manny Pacquiao vs Oscar De La Hoya
Oscar De La Hoya has only been knocked out once in his 44 career fights. Manny Pacquiao has been knocked out twice in his 52 fights.
So when De La Hoya and Pacquiao meet on Saturday night, the odds seem stacked against a knockout.
But De La Hoya says a knockout is precisely what's going to happen.
"This type of fight, at this stage of my career, I'm so hungry for a knockout," De La Hoya said on HBO's De La Hoya-Pacquiao 24/7. "That's why I'm working as hard as I am. My style and his style, sooner or alter, we're going to clash. Knockout. There will be a knockout."
Pacquiao's camp seems to have the same mindset. Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, told me in October that he believes Pacquiao will knock De La Hoya out.
So how's it going to happen? I don't think either De La Hoya or Pacquiao has the kind of punching power to deliver a one-punch knockout, but I like Pacquiao to do just what Roach said he'll do: Chop De La Hoya down over the course of the fight and finish him in the late rounds.
We'll have a Pacquiao-De La Hoya live blog on Saturday night here at FanHouse.
Manny Pacquiao unequivocally established himself as the finest fighter in the world Saturday.
But he accomplished an even more stunning feat when he not only defeated Oscar De La Hoya but battered him into retirement with a shockingly one-sided victory in their welterweight bout before 15,001 at the MGM Grand Garden.
De La Hoya, the 1992 Olympic gold-medal winner and a professional world champion in six weight classes, was hammered as he never was in 44 previous bouts before trainer Nacho Beristain mercifully asked referee Tony Weeks to halt the carnage after eight one-sided rounds.
The fight ended any debate whether Pacquiao or light heavyweight Joe Calzaghe deserves the top spot in the mythical pound-for-pound race, but it also sent a one-time legend into retirement.
De La Hoya, who was taken to a local hospital for a precautionary examination, never in his illustrious career had absorbed such a beating. Pacquiao’s hands were far too quick and, despite the fact that he was moving up from lightweight, his punches were much too hard for the Golden Boy to handle.
It was clear by the third round that De La Hoya was going to need a miracle to reverse the pummeling he was taking.
Pacquiao displayed every punch in the arsenal, raking the Golden Boy with straight lefts that nearly closed De La Hoya’s left eye and stunning him with hooks, jabs and uppercuts.
It was so savage of a beating that it was hard not to feel sorry for De La Hoya. At the end of the bout, a thoroughly beaten De La Hoya trudged across the ring and met his one-time trainer, Freddie Roach.
“You’re right,” De La Hoya said to Roach, who had prepared Pacquiao brilliantly. “I don’t have it any more.”
Pacquiao was a 2-1 underdog, largely because he was challenging a man who had fought at super welterweight or middleweight exclusively for the last seven-and-a-half years. Pacquiao had only fought once as high as lightweight and had fought 75 percent of his bouts before Saturday at super bantamweight or lower.
But Pacquiao unofficially weighed a pound-and-a-half more than De La Hoya – 148½ to 147 – and was clearly stronger and better Saturday.
Oscar De La Hoya versus Manny Pacquiao Match Live Stream
