Fighter vs Promoter

Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2) vs. Oscar De La Hoya (39-5) is not a fight, it’s an event. Oscar De La Hoya has been an event fighter most of his career, and like him or not, he is the face of boxing. Manny Pacquiao, unlike promoter Oscar, is simply a fighter. Manny is neither handsome nor charming, but Manny is a force in the ring the same way Oscar is a force out of the ring.

Oscar loves attention and Manny loves to beat people up. Oscar’s professional career began in 1992 at a weight of 134 lbs. Oscar’s career contains several paradoxes, the most obvious being his relationship with Latino fight fans.

In an attempt to endear himself to a Latino fan base, De La Hoya twice (1996, 1998) beat up the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez and only succeeded in further alienating himself from the Latino fans by disgracing a Mexican ring legend. Chavez was well past his prime during the fights with De La Hoya, and Oscar did himself no favors with his enthusiasm and bravado during the fights. De La Hoya had hoped that by beating Chavez the torch would be passed from a great former champion to the heir apparent, and Oscar could inherit Chavez’s entire fan base. Unfortunately for Oscar, his selection of Chavez as the opponent that he would send a message to Latino fans through was a poor choice.

The next big fight came in a 1999 bout with Tito Trinidad. Billed as “The Fight of the century,” the continuation of the ring war between Puerto Rico and Mexico ended in a scoring controversy that resulted from Oscar’s decision to get on his bicycle for the last third of the bout, rather than stand and fight for the victory. His decision to retreat cost him a victory, and he moved onto Shane Mosley in 2000, Fernando Vargas in 2002, and Mosley again in 2003.

In the promotional build-up for the De La Hoya vs. Vargas bout, Vargas called De La Hoya “gay,” and claimed that he was the real Mexican, not Oscar. These statements would again be echoed by Ricardo Mayorga in 2006, as De La Hoya was positioning himself towards a fight with Mayweather, a fight which he lost to Floyd by split decision on Cinco de Mayo, 2007.

Born to fight

Manny Pacquiao was born on December 17, 1978, in General Santos City, Cotabato del Sur, Philippines. He began his professional boxing career at 106 lbs in 1995. His first fight in America occurred at the MGM Grand in 2001 against Lehlohonolo Ledwaba. Coincidentally, Oscar De La Hoya headlined on the same card against Javier Costillejo. Manny scored a 6th round KO to win the IBF super bantamweight title, Oscar won a 12 round unanimous decision to earn the WBC super welterweight title.

Pacquiao followed up on his 2001 American debut with victories over the legendary Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez. His victories against great Mexican boxers earned Manny the nickname of the “Mexican Assassin.” Manny rejected the moniker and is one of the most civil boxers active today, courteous to all past, present, and future opponents. Evidence of this exists from the occurrence of Erik Morales recently traveling to the Philippines to take part in a San Miguel beer commercial with Manny, the filming of which is available on youtube here.

When Manny Pacquiao started his career in 1995, he weighed 106 lbs. Oscar, at the beginning of his career in 1992, weighed 134 lbs. The weight difference between the two fighters was at it’s greatest in 2004, when Oscar moved up to middleweight and challenged champion Felix Sturm for his alphabet title. That same year saw Manny Pacquiao face off against Juan Manuel Marquez for the first time in a featherweight championship bout. In 2004, Manny’s fighting weight was 125 lbs, and Oscar’s was 160.  

Oscar, age 35, stands 5’ 10’’ with a reach of 73 inches. Manny, 29, is a more compact 5’6” with a 67 inch reach. In their last fights of 2008, Manny defeated David Diaz at 135 lbs for the WBC lightweight title in June, while Oscar won a decision over Steve Forbes at 150 lbs in May.

Angelo Dundee said that Oscar will win because he is the better fighter. Manny Pacquiao is probably the world’s most entertaining fighter, and his exciting victories over Barrera, Marquez, and Morales lends credence to the argument that Manny is actually the better fighter.

Whoever said, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog,” was clearly an idiot and also not a boxing fan. Weight classes were developed for a very simple reason: to make fair fights.

Sugar Ray Robinson is considered the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time. Ray Robinson, who was a middleweight for most of his career, is the unit of measurement by which fighters from vastly different weight classes and eras are measured against one another to form pound-for-pound lists. The pound-for-pound ranking is a way in which a heavyweight’s skill can be compared to that of a bantamweight’s.

Today, Manny is the consensus pound-for-pound king. However, being the pound-for-pound best does not mean that a fighter is impervious to punishment, especially from a larger opponent.

When heavyweight champion Jack Johnson (73-13) met the first of the “White Hope” challengers in 1909, it was legendary middleweight Stanley Ketchel (53-5). The purpose of the bout was to find a white boxer who would be able to take the heavyweight title away from a black champion. Ketchel weighed 170 lbs the day of the fight, and Johnson weighed 205. Johnson, the bigger man, put a terrible beating on the smaller Ketchel, going so far as to hold the smaller middleweight up in order for the beating to continue. Johnson won in an overdue 15th round TKO, as the bout could have lasted 45 rounds.

Fortunately for Ketchel, the beating did not ruin his body and he continued his career, finishing with three straight KOs against fighters his own size.

Whether it is sold as youth vs. age or speed vs. experience, De La Hoya vs. Pacquiao has the capacity to end careers and damage the sport. For some, the success of the event will depend on the amount of PPV buys it generates, whereas for the hardcore fan, keeping the pound-for-pound champion’s career intact is the greatest victory possible from another inflated PPV event.