Results tagged “Oscar De La Hoya Manny Pacquiao” from Robert Littal Presents The Infamous BlackSportsOnline

Oscar De La Hoya retired today from boxing and the question begs will he do the smart thing and never come back or will he be like every other boxing in the history of mankind and make an ill advise return?

No need to beat around the bush it is over for Oscar. It has been over for a long time. Great boxer, Hall of Fame worthy and he has made the sport a ton of money, but when the skills go they go.

In reality he should have probably retired after the Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight where I thought he put in the best effort he could, but was beaten soundly. If you watch that last half of that fight it was obvious that the magic was gone.

I was one of the few that knew it would be a debacle when he fought Manny Pacquiao and what Oscar told Freddie Roach after the fight cemented the fact that even Oscar knew it was time to go. He simply said:

"I don't have it anymore"

To me Oscar will be remembered for three things.

Watch the entire beatdown here. Video courtesy of WorldStarHipHop.

Ring Magazine asked 30 "Web Experts" their predictions on the De La Hoya vs. Pacquiao fight. Twenty eight picked Oscar and two picked Manny. When I was asked why I picked Manny when everyone else was so sure that Oscar was going to win I told them I had two words for them:

If you recall Oscar fought Steve "2 Pounds" Forbes at 154 pounds between losing to Floyd Mayweather and taking the fight with Manny Pacquiao. To most it was just a throw away fight. A tune up before a 2nd bout against Maywather (of course Mayweather ended up retiring). Forbes had always been trained by the Mayweather brothers. He was considered a very poor man's Floyd Mayweather that Oscar could beat up on to get his confidence up.

Oscar won the fight easily, but the thing that struck me that night was how his face looked afterward. It was bruised and battered by Forbes who has absolutely no power, rarely throws punches and was moving up in weight to face De La Hoya.

Once Oscar signed to fight Manny Pacquiao my prediction was already set in stone. If lightly regarded Steve Forbes could make Oscar's face look like he had been hit with bricks what did you think Pacquiao would do? This was an easy fight to predict. The fact that De La Hoya had to go all the way down to 147 made it even easier. Common sense tells you that when you are older that it is easier to put on weight than lose it.
Even then it was hard to drown out all the so called "experts" stating that there was no way that Pacquiao would be able to overcome the size differential. That eventually he would feel Oscar's power and be knocked out. But then I started to think who was the last person to really feel Oscar's power? Ricardo Mayorga? To my death bed I will believe he took a dive for Oscar. Oscar wasn't able to knock out Steve Forbes so why should anyone think he would have been able to knock out Manny Pacquiao?

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As Manny Pacquiao and Oscar de la Hoya put the finishing touches on their respective training camps in preparation for this Saturday's showdown, let's analyze some key elements of the fight.

1) Size: Some are saying that the size differential won't be much of a factor. They talk about Roy Jones vs. John Ruiz or Billy Conn vs. Joe Louis etc. But the majority of fighters who came into a bout with size disadvantages were outstanding boxers. Pacquiao is a fighter, someone who comes forward non-stop with all pistols firing. This plays right into De la Hoya's hands. Advantage De la Hoya.

2) Speed: Pacquiao has the speed advantage but does he have the power to hurt De la Hoya Oscar's fought Mosley, Hopkins, Julio Cesar-Chavez and so one. He's felt power and only Hopkins was able to knock him out. 35 yrs old or not, it's tough to envision Pacquiao being able to hurt De la Hoya. Advantage De la Hoya.

3) Stamina: De la Hoya tires as fights go into the later rounds and Pacquiao always seems to come on stronger the longer the fight goes. If Pacquiao can take the fight into later rounds, he may be able to pot shot De la Hoya, move in and out, and rack up points in the hopes of winning a decision. Advantage Pacquiao.