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Pacquiao overwhelms De La Hoya, stops him in eighth
December 6th, 2008, 6:25 pm · 4 Comments · posted by CARLOS ARIAS
LAS VEGAS - There were many boxing insiders who called the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya fight a mismatch.
As great as Pacquiao has been throughout his career, they said he was giving up too much size by jumping up two weight classes to take on De La Hoya at 147 pounds. After all, Pacquiao began his career as a 106-pounder. That's right, 106 pounds.
They ended up being right about the mismatch. Only, Pacquiao was the one who ended up delivering the one-sided beating to De La Hoya on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Pacquiao's youth, speed, quickness and movement proved to be too much for De La Hoya. Pacquiao became more and more bold as the fight wore on. De La Hoya's face reflected all the damage Pacquiao had inflicted. His left eye was nearly swollen shut, he had a cut on the bridge of his nose and a fat lip.
After almost being knocked out in the closing seconds of the eighth round, referee Tony Weeks took a long look at De La Hoya in his corner as he was being attented to by his cornermen. That's when Weeks decided to wave off the beatdown and award Pacquiao the TKO victory.
"He fought a tremendous fight and he was the better man," a gracious De La Hoya said after the fight. "He deserves all the accolades for everything that he has accomplished and I wish him all the best.
"He's just a great fighter and I give him all the credit in the world."
Pacquiao's speed gave him a huge edge according to the CompuBox punch statistics. Pacquiao outlanded De La Hoya 224-to-83 and he landed 195 power punches to De La Hoya's 51. It was even worse over the final three rounds as Pacquiao outlanded De La Hoya 97-to-21.
"That's what I work so hard for every day in the gym, the speed," Pacquiao said. "That's what I train for and I used it tonight."
It was clear from the opening bell, De La Hoya had no answer for Pacquiao. Pacquiao landed quick lefts up the middle, slipped De La Hoya's jab with side-to-side movement and moved in and out at will.
De La Hoya's face was starting to fall apart by the third round. Pacquiao was peppering De La Hoya with shots in the first three rounds, but he was landing serious power shots by the fourth round.
De La Hoya was taking a beating in the fifth and sixth rounds and he was unable to respond.
But the seventh round was when Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) really started to put the hurt on De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs). He had De La Hoya backed into a corner and he unloaded combinations. De La Hoya was helpless as he took all the punishment, but he didn't go down. Somehow, he made it out of the seventh.
It got worse in the eighth round. Pacquiao cornered De La Hoya again late in the eighth round. De La Hoya almost went down from a head-snapping left, but he survived the pounding.
Weeks deemed De La Hoya unable to continue after the eighth round and waved off the fight.
"My heart still wants to fight, that's for sure," said De La Hoya, who was taken to the hospital following the fight for precautionary measures. "But when your physical doesn't respond ... what can you do? So I have to think about my future plans."
It looks like 140-pound kingpin Ricky Hatton is up next for Pacquiao in the Spring of 2009.
"My job is to train hard and to fight in the ring," Pacquiao said. "It's my promoter's job to decide who I fight and I will fight."
NABO super-lightweight champion Victor Ortiz (23-1-1, 18 KOs) of Oxnard dismantled Jeffrey Resto (22-3, 13 KOs) of Bronx, N.Y., scoring three knockdowns before the fight was stopped at 1:19 of the second round.
WBO super-bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez (24-0, 22 KOs) of Caguas, Puerto Rico, blitzed Sergio Medina (33-2, 18 KOs) of Salta, Argentina, scoring three knockdowns before referee Joe Cortez stopped the mismatch in the opening round.
It was Lopez' third consecutive first-round KO victory. He needed 2 minutes and 25 seconds to dispose of Daniel Ponce De Leon in June to take the title and he got rid of Cesar Figueroa in 47 seconds in his first title defense in October. Medina lasted 1 minute and 38 seconds before succumbing to the talented 25-year-old southpaw.
Super-middleweight prospect Daniel Jacobs (13-0, 12 KOs) of Brooklyn, N.Y., scored a second-round TKO over Victor Lares (14-4, 3 KOs) of Corpus Christi, Tex., in the opening bout of the pay-per-view telecast.
Jacobs sent Lares to the deck with a pair of left hooks and a right and referee Jay Nady called off the bout at 2:44 of the second round.
In a swing bout, flyweight Richie Mepranium (15-2-1, 3 KOs) of Sarangani, Philippines, outworked Cesar Lopez (20-7, 4 KOs) of El Paso, Tex., en route to a six-round una. dec.
UNDERCARD
Super-lightweight prospect Danny Garcia (10-0, 7 KOs) of Philadelphia, Pa., was extended the distance for the second straight fight, but he came away with an eight-round unanimous decision over Luis Alfredo Lugo (10-6-1, 5 KOs) of Los Mochis, Mexico. Garcia won by scores of 80-72, 80-71 and 79-73.
Jose Angel Beranza (31-14-2, 25 KOs) of Mexico City, Mexico, pulled off a big upset, taking an eight-round unanimous decision from super-bantamweight prospect Jesus Manuel Rojas (13-1, 10 KOs) of Caguas, Puerto Rico. The scores were 78-74, 79-73 and 80-72 for Beranza.
Lightweight Adrien Broner (5-0, 5 KOs) of Cincinnati, Ohio, made quick work of Scott Furney (3-7-1, 1 KO) of Pontiac, Mich., stopping his overmatched opponent at 1:14 of the opening round.
Super-bantamweight Roberto Marroquin (5-0, 4 KOs) of Dallas, Tex., scored a TKO over Isaac Hidalgo (2-3) of Tucson, Ariz., at 2:48 of the first round.
That was a severe beatdown. Pac-Man is the king. He fought an intelligent fight. The fight was over the first round.
Future plans for De La Hoya: Stay out of the ring and take Ricky Hatton with you.
I agree with Damian. Oscar tried to work the Hispanic crowd but in the end he ha showned no Mexican blood in him. You are not a warrior, all you care is for the millions you have made.
The "Golden Boy" looked more like a rusty can that got kicked around, around and all around the ring. He was and always has been a over hyped fighter, simply because he was a good revenue tool for boxing. He lost to Frank Strum but was shocked when he was announced as the unamimous winner. Althogh I never like Oscar I truly felt bad for him. He showed a bad example of a hispanic fighter, REAL MEXICANS BANG UNTIL THEY WIN OR DIE TRYIN. The "Golden Girl eh, Golden Boy will still make a ton of money promoting boxing. Hopefully he will use this as a tool to educate hispanics in the business world. Good Luck Oscar.
Oscar might have fought one fight too many (who can fault him for that since most fighters do the same), but he will go on and be a great promoter and ambassador for boxing. Oscar gave the fans many great fights throughout the years.