One era ended and another officially began in boxing on December 6, 2008.
On this night Manny Pacquiao may have ended the storied career of Oscar De La Hoya with an eight round beating that was as brutal as it was magical.
While I don’t believe Pacquiao’s win was much of a surprise, nearly everyone at ringside and most boxing experts did. De La Hoya was a decently large favorite going into the fight likely more due to his name and the people he has fought in the past than due to any stylistic or technical advantage. Truly, in these areas Pacquiao was the superior fighter and that point was pounded into the minds of all watching as much as it was pounded into the left eye of De La Hoya that swelled up more and more as each round came and went.
The main reason that I never considered De La Hoya a favorite was because of the ring rust that he possessed. Since the Mayweather fight—May 5, 2007—De La Hoya fought only once in a 12-round domination of Steve Forbes prior to the fight with Pacquiao; in that time Pacquiao fought three times with two (rematches with Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez) being fight of the year candidates and the fight in June with David Diaz being almost as much of a display of Pacquiao’s talents as the fight with De La Hoya became. Even more telling about what Oscar’s priorities (promoting against fighting) have become, he’s fought—including the fight with Pacquiao—a total of only five times since his 2004 fight with Bernard Hopkins while Pacquiao has fought eleven times in that time span going 10-1. His only loss in that time period was a 2005 loss to Erik Morales that Pacquiao avenged with two wins against Morales in 2006.
Speed and power turned into the two biggest weapons for Pacquiao and the two biggest hindering factors for De La Hoya, who hasn’t possessed either in a large capacity for years. Pacquiao on the other hand seemed to have an endless supply with 195 of his 224 landed punches being power punches. During the entire fight, Pacquiao never allowed De La Hoya to get into any kind of groove as his body movement was so much more fluid than Oscar’s and the speed with which he moved kept Oscar off balance in the ring and susceptible to all the damage Pacquiao could dish out.
The seventh round was particularly brutal as Oscar landed under ten punches in the entire round while Pacquiao landed 45 power punches, the most power punches landed on Oscar in any round of his career with most of those aimed and connecting on De La Hoya’s already swelling left eye.
De La Hoya did fight gamely and effectively in the first two rounds losing them in close fashion. However, after that, his only effective round would be the fifth where he had a nice final minute landing a big flurry. Still, the flurry couldn’t give De La Hoya the round and like basically everything De La Hoya landed in the fight did no real damage to Pacquiao.
Despite weighing in three pounds heavier than Pacquiao at 145-142, HBO’s scales showed Pacquiao weighing in two pounds heavier than De La Hoya on fight night.
De La Hoya’s beating on this night draws in my mind comparisons to Julio Caesar Chavez’s 1996 beating at the hands of De La Hoya. If any fight solidified the era of The Golden Boy, that fight was it. And now if any fight solidifies a new era in boxing beginning, this one is it.
With Oscar’s pending retirement, Floyd Mayweather keeping his retirement promise through 2008, and Bernard Hopkins & Roy Jones Jr. no longer being able to draw on name alone, it should be safe to say that a new day in boxing has arrived.
Kelly Pavlik, despite Hopkins’ dismantling of him, is one of the new stars that will likely emerge, as he could be the middleweight division’s next kingpin if he can get past his first defeat without the lingering scars that sometimes brings to younger fighters. Shane Mosley, despite being part of that older group of fighters, is still relevant enough to be in the running for title shots that he can still assume the moniker of star with good performances. And Jermain Taylor is still the most name worthy of the younger fighters above 145. Most importantly for him (and maybe the sport), Taylor showed recently that despite his losses to Pavlik he is still capable of his A-game and may not have peaked just yet.
And of course, there’s Pacquiao. This man has been one of the top fighters in the world for the last three or four years and has steadily been going up and up the ladder of most marketable and drawing fighters on the planet during that same time period. With the over one million buys this fight will generate and the statement this fight makes, the majority of the planet that hasn’t seen the obvious greatness this man possesses now gets the message: if anyone is the future of boxing, this man is. The fact that his rematch with Marquez did 400,000 buys and $20 million in PPV revenue, and that his June fight with Diaz did similar numbers should only reinforce the notion that this man is what boxing needs. Not only does he have the looks, the talent, the ability to entertain the crowd in a fight he’s overwhelming dominating, but he also has engaged in more classics or near classics in recent time than almost any name fighter out there.
So with all of that, the main question remains what comes next for Pacman? Despite saying that he will go back down to 135 and 140, if the money is right than a fight with Ricky Hatton could materialize, but the real big money would be in luring Floyd Mayweather out of retirement to fight the man that obliterated someone Mayweather went to decision with under two years ago. For the moment I would look to Pacquiao simply going back down to 135 and continuing to run wild just above the weight division that made him a star in the first place. As a fight fan, a Mayweather/Pacquiao fight would have me reaching for my wallet in record time, but a third Pacquaio/Marquez fight would be an equal tradeoff. And considering the close nature of their first two fights, and the fact that Marquez appears to be staying at 135 after the Cassamayor fight last September, that could be the best bet for where we see Pacman next.
