Post by Baqu3ro on Dec 2, 2008 12:55:50 GMT 8
By Tim Smith
There is an old adage in boxing: A good big man beats a good little man. That assumes that both men are in
their prime and are at peak condition.
When Manny Pacquiao, a very good little man whom many believe is the best "Pound-for-Pound"boxer in the sport, steps into the ring against Oscar De La Hoya, a good big man in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Pacquiao will be hoping that De La Hoya isn't the De La Hoya of six years ago. Actually he'll be counting on it.
If De La Hoya is anywhere near his peak, he'll knocko ut Pacquiao within three rounds. If he is not, then the "little man" is going to give him fits.
I still believe this is a mismatch in the classic sense. It is supposed to be a welterweight match. But De La Hoya hasn't fought at 147 pounds since he beat Arturo Gatti in 2001. Since then he has fought at junior middleweight and middleweight. His last two fights against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Steve Forbes was fought at 150 pounds.
Pacquiao has never fought at welterweight. He started his pro boxing career at 106 pounds. And in 2001 when De La Hoya was fighting as a true welterweight, Pacquiao was all the way up to 120 pounds (super bantamweight).
He just slipped into the lightweight division back in June, beating David Diaz for the WBC title after fighting at 130 pounds for the past three years.
This is a money fight, pure and simple. De La Hoya and Richard Schafer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, De La Hoya's promotion company, are shrewd businessmen. They are banking on the sporting public being naive enough about boxing to buy into a sideshow.
De La Hoya is calling this a challenge because Pacquiao is rated as No. 1 on the mythical "Pound-for-Pound" list.
He knows that Pacquiao will make it a great fight, because Pacquiao doesn't know how to back up. But he also knows that if he can land some telling blows early in the fight that physics will take over and Pacquiao, the smaller man, will not be able to stand.
It should hold true, because despite the fight in Pacquiao, he has never had to stand up to well-delivered punch from a 150-pound man. De La Hoya could be 160 pounds when he steps into the ring.
The only problem with that strategy is I'm not sure how much De La Hoya has left in his tank.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's longtime trainer, trained De La Hoya for his last fight - a 12-round unanimous decision over Steve Forbes, another former 130-pound world champion.
Roach said De La Hoya couldn't pull the trigger on his punches anymore. Of course De La Hoya used this as justification for making the fight with Pacquiao. Roach is convinced that Pacquiao can beat De La Hoya.
"He (De La Hoya) has a good left hand and doesn't have a lot of confidence in his right hand," Roach said.
"That's going to be out toughest opposition. We're working on that. I've got some great sparring with better jabs than Oscar and Manny's handling it very well.
"And we're going to put pressure on this guy because I know Oscar tends to get tired late in rounds in slow paced fights. We're going to fight the whole time and just burn him out."
Pacquiao sparred with Amir Khan, the British lightweight contender, to help him prepare for De La Hoya.
"Amir has a great left hand, very fast," Roach said.
"He and Manny are really going at it. I wanted him to get his confidence back and I'm training him now too. So it's worked out well from both sides there. And Manny had a little bit of trouble with Amir's jab early, but then he attacks it and takes it away from him in later rounds."
Roach said he is not concerned about the weight
"His (Pacquaio's) body fat is 6%. His weight is good. Oscar's a little taller and so forth but by fight time I think Oscar will probably weigh about 160 pounds and Manny will be 150 pounds," Roach said.
"So 10 pounds I'm not really worried about that because I feel that speed wins this fight - not size."
We'll see whether Pacquiao will be able to turn the old adage about a good big man versus a good little man on its head. If he does, then he will truly be the "Pound for Pound" number one.
PUNCHLINES
Paul Williams and Chris Arreola displayed terrific heart and determination in separate fights on the same card in Ontario, Cal., this past Saturday night. Williams suffered a nasty gash over his right eye in the first round, but continued to battle Verno Phillips through eight rounds.
Whipping Phillips with vicious body shots, Williams finally wore down the veteran. The doctors stopped the fight in the eighth round after determining that Phillips wasn't fit to continue, giving Williams the WBO super welterweight title.
It took 36 stitches to close the cut above Williams' eye. Arreola, probably the best young American heavyweight in the game, got dropped to one knee in the second round by the hard-hitting Travis Walker.
But he came back to drop Walker twice in the same round and then finished him with a big left hook in the third round. Weathering those kinds of storms will serve both Williams and Arreola well in future fights.
There is an old adage in boxing: A good big man beats a good little man. That assumes that both men are in
their prime and are at peak condition.
When Manny Pacquiao, a very good little man whom many believe is the best "Pound-for-Pound"boxer in the sport, steps into the ring against Oscar De La Hoya, a good big man in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Pacquiao will be hoping that De La Hoya isn't the De La Hoya of six years ago. Actually he'll be counting on it.
If De La Hoya is anywhere near his peak, he'll knocko ut Pacquiao within three rounds. If he is not, then the "little man" is going to give him fits.
I still believe this is a mismatch in the classic sense. It is supposed to be a welterweight match. But De La Hoya hasn't fought at 147 pounds since he beat Arturo Gatti in 2001. Since then he has fought at junior middleweight and middleweight. His last two fights against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Steve Forbes was fought at 150 pounds.
Pacquiao has never fought at welterweight. He started his pro boxing career at 106 pounds. And in 2001 when De La Hoya was fighting as a true welterweight, Pacquiao was all the way up to 120 pounds (super bantamweight).
He just slipped into the lightweight division back in June, beating David Diaz for the WBC title after fighting at 130 pounds for the past three years.
This is a money fight, pure and simple. De La Hoya and Richard Schafer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, De La Hoya's promotion company, are shrewd businessmen. They are banking on the sporting public being naive enough about boxing to buy into a sideshow.
De La Hoya is calling this a challenge because Pacquiao is rated as No. 1 on the mythical "Pound-for-Pound" list.
He knows that Pacquiao will make it a great fight, because Pacquiao doesn't know how to back up. But he also knows that if he can land some telling blows early in the fight that physics will take over and Pacquiao, the smaller man, will not be able to stand.
It should hold true, because despite the fight in Pacquiao, he has never had to stand up to well-delivered punch from a 150-pound man. De La Hoya could be 160 pounds when he steps into the ring.
The only problem with that strategy is I'm not sure how much De La Hoya has left in his tank.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's longtime trainer, trained De La Hoya for his last fight - a 12-round unanimous decision over Steve Forbes, another former 130-pound world champion.
Roach said De La Hoya couldn't pull the trigger on his punches anymore. Of course De La Hoya used this as justification for making the fight with Pacquiao. Roach is convinced that Pacquiao can beat De La Hoya.
"He (De La Hoya) has a good left hand and doesn't have a lot of confidence in his right hand," Roach said.
"That's going to be out toughest opposition. We're working on that. I've got some great sparring with better jabs than Oscar and Manny's handling it very well.
"And we're going to put pressure on this guy because I know Oscar tends to get tired late in rounds in slow paced fights. We're going to fight the whole time and just burn him out."
Pacquiao sparred with Amir Khan, the British lightweight contender, to help him prepare for De La Hoya.
"Amir has a great left hand, very fast," Roach said.
"He and Manny are really going at it. I wanted him to get his confidence back and I'm training him now too. So it's worked out well from both sides there. And Manny had a little bit of trouble with Amir's jab early, but then he attacks it and takes it away from him in later rounds."
Roach said he is not concerned about the weight
"His (Pacquaio's) body fat is 6%. His weight is good. Oscar's a little taller and so forth but by fight time I think Oscar will probably weigh about 160 pounds and Manny will be 150 pounds," Roach said.
"So 10 pounds I'm not really worried about that because I feel that speed wins this fight - not size."
We'll see whether Pacquiao will be able to turn the old adage about a good big man versus a good little man on its head. If he does, then he will truly be the "Pound for Pound" number one.
PUNCHLINES
Paul Williams and Chris Arreola displayed terrific heart and determination in separate fights on the same card in Ontario, Cal., this past Saturday night. Williams suffered a nasty gash over his right eye in the first round, but continued to battle Verno Phillips through eight rounds.
Whipping Phillips with vicious body shots, Williams finally wore down the veteran. The doctors stopped the fight in the eighth round after determining that Phillips wasn't fit to continue, giving Williams the WBO super welterweight title.
It took 36 stitches to close the cut above Williams' eye. Arreola, probably the best young American heavyweight in the game, got dropped to one knee in the second round by the hard-hitting Travis Walker.
But he came back to drop Walker twice in the same round and then finished him with a big left hook in the third round. Weathering those kinds of storms will serve both Williams and Arreola well in future fights.