The Ricky Hatton-Manny Pacquiao Fight: Clash Between Two Great Boxers
April 8, 2009 by admin
Filed under Manny Pacquiao
When the match between Ricky Hatton and Manny Pacquiao was sealed last January, there have been many speculations from both camps about who will win. Considering that both boxers have good track records, it is difficult to tell exactly who is the more powerful, or who has a greater chance of out powering the other.
If you follow the press releases taken from both camps, each has a good story to tell, harsh words to hurl at the other, and even plans to pursue after the much-awaited fight.
However, it you go down to a more personal level and listen to what each of the two boxing heroes have to say, you can get a better picture of how they really feel about themselves and about the other.
On one occasion Pacquiao admitted that he has to be prepared more for this fight than what he did prior to fighting Oscar de la Hoya. He considers Hatton as a great opponent and that he should not underestimate the Brit’s strength and power.
Speaking before his fans at the Trafford Center in Manchester, Pacquiao said that Hatton will surely give him more problems than De la Hoya did. Pacquiao has given special attention to his every fight, and he is man enough to say that this one against Hatton will need even more of his attention and self-confidence.
He looks at Hatton’s record of 1 loss in 45 fights and with 32 knockouts as great and something of value. Hatton has won titles in the light-welterweight and welterweight classes. With all of these, Pacquiao has to see to it that he has got what it should take to face a great British boxer.
On Hatton’s assessment of Pacquiao, he is not scared of Manny. Given the Filipino’s well-decorated career, Hatton takes it only as a challenge. According to the Manchester native, the May 2 fight will be “a fight between two nice men”.
However, he continued, the two nice men will just be challengers that are willing to do anything and put everything to win once they get inside the ring. He considers both of them as both aggressive, but Pacquiao is not someone who would cause him to worry about.
The MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada will be the deciding ground as to who between the two confident boxers will win the light-welterweight showdown. Great fights have been staged in this arena, but this May 2 fight will be different. It is because this will also be a match between two trainers, Pacquiao’s Freddie Roach and Hatton’s Mayweather, Sr.
In several instances, the two hurled biting words against each other, if only to prove that their wards are the best among the rest. The result of this much talked about fight will reveal which trainer did his best in order to win the title. It could be said that whether it is Hatton or Pacquiao who will win, the contention would be that the trainer of the winner is the “better one”.
Manny Pacquiao Fight Advantageous to Dela Hoya or Maybe Not
September 12, 2008 by admin
Filed under Manny Pacquiao
Boxing purists and fans are so convinced Oscar De la Hoya is taking the easy way out by matching up with the Pinoy Pride and Champ Manny Pacquiao instead of Antonio Margarito. No one can blame them. At a height of 5’10”, rated at the super welterweight class, with an obvious reach advantage, Golden Boy literally towers above the new lightweight champion, Manny Pacquiao.
After a Technical Knockout win over Arturo Gatti in 2001 in the super welterweight class, De la Hoya never fought below 154 lbs. He even went as far as 160 pounds (middleweight class) against Felix Sturm in 2004.
Pacquiao, on the other hand, just recently moved up to lightweight (135 lbs.) against David Diaz June this year. He stands 5’6”.
The howl of protest is reaching an embarrassing level. Insiders remain unfazed.
Bob Arum says the Manny Pacquiao vs De la Hoya bout will rank among the all-time greats in boxing history. He said that the December match at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas will be mentioned in the same breath with the 1970’s Ali-Frazier trilogy or the 1980’s historic bouts of Sugar Ray Leonard with Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns.
Arum further points out that he believes the Mexican Destroyer has more than genuine chances of defeating the Golden Boy.
While Pacquiao has to jump two weight classes to meet De la Hoya to reach the 147 mark, this is not his first time to come up the ring on such weight. He fought and decimated Barrera in October last year with all the 144 pounds of solid muscle (he weighed in at 130 lbs.)
The Golden Boy, on the other hand, has to burn a lot of body mass as he has to jump down two weight classes to satisfy the 147 lbs. maximum demanded by the Pacquiao camp. The last time he weighed lowest (welterweight) was in 2000.
He has to really starve and work himself out to shrink, or else he pays the Pacquiao camp $3 million dollars per excess pound over 147 lbs. To further worsen the deal for De la Hoya, Freddie Roach threatens not to let Manny Pacquiao get in the ring if he arrives overweight on fight night.
And the Pacquiao camp wants the weigh-in to be done on the day before the fight.
Ain’t the Golden Boy in a tight fix?
The toll this pound-shedding punishment is reaching masochistic dimensions we could just not begin to imagine how the 35-year old Oscar de la Hoya is going to take this. A weigh-in three days before the fight would make it a bit easier but the Filipino camp is threatening to withdraw the fight if they insist on it. Freddie Roach says, if De la Hoya comes up the ring at 150 lbs. he will stop Pacquiao from getting in. Three pounds is a lot of difference in this fight.
Oscar de la Hoya has, at best, been a part-time boxer. He is now more of a businessman than a ring warrior. Height and weight difference or not, the 35 year-old Super welterweight is going to face a 29 year-old boxing phenomenon that is at the prime of his game.
De la Hoya to pay Pinoy Pride Pacquiao $3 Million per Pound Beyond 147 lbs.
September 11, 2008 by admin
Filed under Manny Pacquiao
Makes me wish I was a boxer myself.
Only in the big-bucks boxing world of Oscar De la Hoya and Pinoy pride Manny Pacquiao could one demand three million big ones per excess pound you lug inside the ring. Pacquiao, the Filipino boxing sensation that fell the biggest Mexican boxing names one after the other is taking in Oscar de la Hoya on December 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
This fight (we don’t have the merchandising title yet) takes on a lot of dimensions that one can talk about it from so many angles: Revenge, Greed, and pure entertainment. This is so not unlike your usual Monday afternoon TV drama flick. Boxing critics are ranting about how De la Hoya seems to be wanting to get the easy way out by fighting a size-disadvantaged fighter instead of taking on for a rematch either Bernard Hopkins or Shane Mosley. He lost his bouts with these two.
Those who love the drama angle relish how De la Hoya would exact revenge for the Mexican legends whose sterling bright careers Manny Pacquiao have extinguished one by one. Consider the brightest of the brightest in Mexican boxing: Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Hector Velasquez, Oscar Larios, Eric Morales, Jorge Solis, and David Diaz. Big names, champions of Mexican boxing, whose heads are figuratively strewn together and hung like medals around Pacquiao’s chest.
Oscar de la Hoya reportedly took it upon himself to fight the Filipino sensation to disprove what Freddie Roach said about his not being “able to pull” the trigger against Pacquiao.
The money part is the best part.
Big bucks. This is what it’s all about. Both fighters are not in it for glory or title. They have plenty of those. Money is the prime agenda in this fight. While the other bouts of prominent boxers only assures them of $8 million dollars take-home pay, the De la Hoya-Pacquiao negotiations started off with a minimum earnings of $10 million dollars for Manny Pacquiao.
Subsequent negotiations almost stalled when t
he Pacquiao camp said no to the 70-30 sharing in favor of the Golden Boy. Now that both camps have reached an agreement (to an undisclosed sharing scheme) one could only speculate on what the Pacquiao camp initially disclosed to the press: something like between $15 million to $20 million dollars.
I wish I was a boxer. No, I wish I was Manny Pacquiao.
Forget about the purse. Just think of what the Mexican killer from the Philippines would get for every extra pound after the 147-pound max Oscar de la Hoya weighs when it is time to face the scale. $3 million dollars per extra pound! Just three tiny extra pounds and Pinoy pride Pacquiao will top what other boxers receive for winning a big championship bout.
De la Hoya-Manny Pacquiao December Fight: One of the biggest in boxing history
September 10, 2008 by admin
Filed under Manny Pacquiao
The Ali-Frazier trilogy in the 1970’s and the Sugar Ray Leonard bouts with Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler in the 80’s are just some of the only few historic and unforgettable bouts in boxing history. Expect the Oscar de la Hoya-Manny Pacquiao December 6 bout to join this shortlist of hall of famer ring encounters.
Last year’s Oscar De la Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. bout was recorded to be the largest pay-per-view fight in boxing history at 2.4 million buys. Mayweather won, and is now a filthy-rich boxing retiree at age 31. While De la Hoya lost, he earned a record $58 million purse.
Oscar de la Hoya has announced his retirement and he wants another fight with the same magnitude as, if not surpassing, that May 5, 2007 fight with Mayweather, Jr. The De la Hoya-Pacquiao is expected to become another biggest earning fight in boxing history after the blockbuster De la Hoya-Mayweather Jr. bout last year. Trust Golden Promotions in coming up with such top-grosser events. Remember the first boxing loss he suffered agains Felix Trinidad? It was also the largest non-heavyweight pay-per-view fight during its time.
Oscar de la Hoya wants his pre-retirement fight to be a “worldwide event,” not unlike the Mohammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard fights that are recorded in any boxing enthusiast’s memory as classics. A De la Hoya-Margarito fight, or a brawl with Ricky Hatton or Miguel Cotto would be exciting but not as lucrative and as magnificent as a megafight with today’s best pound-for-pound fighter of the world—Manny Pacquiao.
De la Hoya said, “I want a big fight. I want to go out with a big bang. I want to make it an event. I want to make it a worldwide event because I want to show the boxing world and I want to show everybody around the world that boxing is alive and well.”
Bob Arum, Top Rank’s vice president and Pacquiao’s promoter said, “This fight will demonstrate to everyone that there is no sport universally as popular as boxing.”
What both camps did not mention is that more than anything else, this fight is all for the money. Negotiations faltered at first when the Pacquiao camp initially refused Golden Boy Promotion’s offer of a 70-30 sharing in favor of Oscar de la Hoya. Perhaps the sharing has been upped to 60-40 or something in between, plus the fact that what Manny Pacquiao could earn in this fight is something equivalent to what he would earn from four major fights.
It can be recalled that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. got only a 30 percent cut and he earned $22 million from that fight last year.
Manny Pacquiao Fight vs De la Hoya: Its all for the money!
September 10, 2008 by admin
Filed under Manny Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao fight against dela Hoya will be face-off of fame and glory. Two of mankind’s greatest aim.
No. Pacquiao and De la Hoya are not in for it this time. With their multiple champion belts and checkbooks bursting with millions, they are simply awash with these now that further quest for fame and glory takes a backseat to the real motivation behind why these two boxing titans are clashing on December 6 in Las Vegas.
It’s all for the money.
Right after Pacquiao’s defeat of David Diaz last June 28, 2008 in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, talk about finding another opponent for the ring phenomenon was the most logical next national past time for boxing fans. When that Brit Ricky Hatton’s name popped out, (this British boxing superstar normally weighs around 180 lbs.), we thought it was all big talk. Well, when your chest is all bloated up with a big win plus you have just added the WBC lightweight title in your kick-ass belt collection, it’s ok to talk big. And we haven’t mentioned the millions that’s just added to your already obese bank account. It’s ok to talk big, really. Be my guest.
But then comes the news about the fight with Oscar de la Hoya that’s really happening on December 6. Now, ain’t that getting a bit too far? Manny Pacquiao vs. Oscar de la Hoya? The Golden Boy’s taller by about four inches, way bigger in build that he fights in the 154 lbs. class (even fought as high as 160). Hollywood pretty boy Oscar was reported to have weighed 150 lbs. last week, will exchange blows with Manny Pacquiao who has just recently ventured to move up to the 135 lbs. class? It’s just plain nuts!
…all for the money.
Let us not forget what somebody somewhere said that goes a little something like, “professional boxing is all about putting asses in the seats.” More butts planted in seats, plus more hanging behind (pardon the pun) in SRO crowd, means more money in the pocket.
Hollywood pretty boy Oscar wouldn’t even bat an eyelash when charged with the lopsidedness of the match, “A lot of people are going to be very surprised when we’re standing next to each other,” says Golden Boy. “Size isn’t going to be that much of a difference.”
Bruce Trampler, Pacquiao promoter and Top Rank vice president also thinks the difference in weight is not an issue. The fight is not about boosting careers, it’s all about—arent’ you getting sick of this already?—the money. “Floyd wanted to fight Oscar and Hatton for the Benjamins….Everyone wants to fight an Ali, De la Hoya, Hatton, Leonard and a Pacquiao because they can get paid as opponents. Juan Diaz or Casamayor can’t make real money unless they fight an attraction.”
If our pretty boy Golden Boy Oscar loses, what the heck? Manny Pacquiao is a phenomenon at the prime of his career. It’s ok to lose to someone like him. After all, as he once said, his legacy is already written and no one can erase that. Not even a loss to someone like Pacquiao.
If our Asian boxing superstar loses, so what? It’s ok to lose to someone bigger than you are. He can always get up and pick up the pieces, it wouldn’t hurt his ego a bit.
One thing’s sure: both guys are going to go home obscenely richer than they already are.
All for the money.
Tickets for Oscar dela Hoya vs Manny Pacquiao Fight Tickets Here!
