After an undercard that was, to be kind, not very exciting, we're finally getting ready for The Dream Match pitting Oscar De La Hoya against Manny Pacquiao. The MGM Grand in Las Vegas is the setting, and a wide range of well-known figures are in attendance. That includes Usher, James Carville and Reggie Miller, as well as boxers Antonio Margarito, Mike Tyson and Shane Mosley.
We've got three national anthems to hear: the Philippines, Mexico and the United States. Keisha Cole handles the honors for "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The tale of the tape shows De La Hoya with a four-inch height advantage. Manny is six years younger. The big surprise is that on the unofficial HBO scales, Pacquiao actually weighs a pound and a half more than De La Hoya on the night of the fight.
Pac Man is introduced first by Michael Buffer, making his way to the ring to "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Jim Lampley points out the sizable Filipino fan contingent on hand for the fight.
The usual mariachi music signals De La Hoya's entry. He gets a large reaction from the crowd but possibly not as raucous as he sometimes receives in Vegas. Larry Merchant says he feels the fans are split pretty evenly.
Tony Weeks is the referee in charge of the action. Buffer handles the fighter introductions and we're ready to go.
Round One
Oscar throws some early punches as Manny circles. DLH trying the jab. Nice straight left by Manny as they tie up. Pac Man is trying to get inside and quickly backs Oscar up. De La Hoya goes to the body. Manny is moving well but the height disadvantage is bothering him a little. Now Oscar works along the ropes and lands a left hook. Nice jab by Manny is answered by Oscar. Pacquiao is sneaking some jabs in there too. Both men got a little bit of what they wanted in the opening frame.
Franchise: Pacquiao 10-9
Spartan117: Pacquiao 10-9
Uatu: Pacquiao 10-9
Round Two
Oscar works off his jab to open the second. He may need to throw it more. Nice head-body combo by Pac Man. Neither man scoring in the center of the ring. Good body shots both ways. Now another left to the body by Pac Man. The crowd is really into it, reacting to almost every shot. Uppercut by Manny and he dances away. His leg and head movement have been excellent so far. Two lefts score for Pacquiao and that round was even more in his favor.
Franchise: Pacquiao 10-9
Spartan117: Pacquiao 10-9
Uatu: Pacquiao 10-9
Round Three
Manny popping to the head with both hands. Oscar tries to get him to exchange. He hsan't come up with a game plan that's worked so far. He finally comes up with a right hand upstairs and a left to the body. Lampley says Oscar is showing some swelling already. DLH having more success with the jab. Right to the body by Oscar. Nice right hooks to the body and head by Pac Man. Golden Boy throws some shots upstairs but they are picked off by the arms of Pacquiao.
Franchise: Pacquiao 10-9
Spartan117: Pacquiao 10-9
Uatu: Pacquiao 10-9
Round Four
The left-hand lead is just about always there for Manny. He sneaks in some rights to the head; Oscar lands a right in response. A quick flurry slows Oscar down for a second. Left to the body and right to the head by Pac Man. Oscar reaching with the jab but has nothing with it. One-two upstairs and another left for Pacquiao. Oscar really looked slow over the last 45 seconds of that round.
Franchise: Pacquiao 10-9
Spartan117: Pacquiao 10-9
Uatu: Pacquiao 10-9
Round Five
The announcers are discussing whether Oscar can play the bully to turn things around. A combo stuns Oscar momentarily. Jabs and hooks all finding a home for Manny. He's mixing punches to the head and body well. De La Hoya can't find any room to fire counter shots. Now Oscar finds some success by going to the body and closing to very tight range. He comes forward swinging but Manny backs him up right before the bell.
Franchise: Pacquiao 10-9
Spartan117: Pacquiao 10-9
Uatu: Pacquiao 10-9
Round Six
Freddie Roach warned Manny to stay off the ropes, as that's the only place De La Hoya has had any success. This round starts slower. Both men are able to dodge each other's jabs. A quick exchange goes mostly Manny's way. Right-left combo by Pac Man. Double jab gets Oscar's attention. Straight left scores for Manny too. A lull for the last 30 seconds ends with some fast head shots by Pacquiao, who is still light on his feet.
Franchise: Pacquiao 10-9
Spartan117: Pacquiao 10-9
Uatu: Pacquiao 10-9
Round Seven
Harold Lederman has every round for Pac Man so far. Manny works the body to open up the head. Snapping jabs by Manny followed by lefts to the body. Oscar is backed into the corner trying to fend off the onslaught. He is taking a pounding right now. Body shots are pouring in and Oscar hasn't thrown anything back for quite some time. You have to wonder if the judges will score that 10-8 because it was so one-sided.
Franchise: Pacquiao 10-8
Spartan117: Pacquiao 10-8
Uatu: Pacquiao 10-8
Round Eight
The only drama left right now is if the fight will get stopped. De La Hoya will really have to reach deep just to save face. He does come out with a bit more spring this round. DLH throws some right hands and Manny fires right back. Oscar is backed into a corner and here come the body shots. They come back into the middle of the ring and Pac Man is just picking his spots now. De La Hoya flurries to the body but Manny signals that he's fine. He backs DLH into the corner with another flurry at the bell.
Franchise: Pacquiao 10-9
Spartan117: Pacquiao 10-9
Uatu: Pacquiao 10-9
There's a long discussion in Oscar's corner after the eighth round, and eventually De La Hoya is convinced by his corner to stop the fight.
The winner by TKO at the end of Round Eight... Manny " Pac Man" Pacquiao.
De La Hoya's face is an absolute mess with heavy swelling on both sides. He originally tried to convince his corner to give him one more round, but it's doubtful he could have done anything with it.
The official scores were lopsided, with De La Hoya winning just one round on one card. CompuBox numbers showed Manny landing almost three times as many punches and connecting on 59 percent of his power shots.
De La Hoya is interviewed first, and he says Pacquiao deserves all the accolades he will receive. He dodges Merchant's question about the weight loss possibly draining him, but he says he's not shocked because Manny is such a great fighter. Oscar says his heart still wants to fight, but he needs to be smart after what happened tonight.
Merchant turns to Pac Man to see if he thought he could dominate in this fashion. Manny says he could see in the first round that his speed was too much for De La Hoya to handle and it set up a pattern he could repeat. After three rounds, his biggest challenge was preventing overconfidence and staying cautious. Bob Arum sneaks in and gives Merchant credit for thinking the fight was possible in the first place. Roach also feels vindicated. Merchant throws out the idea of a Hatton fight and wonders what might be going on in the Philippines right now. Manny thanks his people and God.
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6 comments:
De La Hoya shouldn't be allowed to fight any more Mega-Fights ever again. As the trend continues..........He is a total insult to the boxing public.
To bad his face isn't as plastic as his Personallity and Legacy.
With hindsight being 20/20, if you look at the Forbes fight, and Oscar didn't get any younger, and he had to come in even lighter, add it all up and you have a one-sided beatdown. Oscar is done as an A level fighter and attraction.
Manny will crush Hatton too. Floyd would still beat Manny.
I want to see Pacquiao-Mayweather. There's no other fight out there that would interest me more than this one.
I guess the questions would be, what weight would it be fought at? would floyd fight any tune ups beforehand? how far from now would they fight?
I believe that if the floyd that had the conditioning and desire and size and strength of the floyd from the World Awaits fought the Manny of the Dream Match, that floyd would win. But that floyd weighed in at 150 maybe? Floyd of the World Awaits may lose the first two rounds, but at some point he would have sniped away at Manny just like he did against Hatton. I don't know if he would have knocked Manny out though.
I would think Manny and Hatton are next. That fight might be in March or April. So that leaves Manny and Floyd for the summer or Fall. That puts floyd off from fighting for over two years.
So there's that against him. that would work in manny's favor I would think. that's so much time off for Floyd, who knows what to expect from him?
Also, if he passed on the somewhat easy rematch against Oscar for the most money, why would he come back for more danger and less money to fight Manny?
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