Lightweight Pac shocks the world!

posted at boxing capital dot com
december 8, 2008
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Chinibog ng buhay. He's got eaten alive. The flavour is totally lost in the translation, but the colourful Filipino phrase explains the manner in which Manny Pacquiao (now 48-3, 36 KOs) literally annihilated the much bigger Oscar De La Hoya (now 39-6, 30 KOs) in their welterweight bout Saturday night (6th December 2008). Pacquaio has not only eaten Oscar alive; he also made Oscar continually eat lots of his trademark straight lefts and every other punch in his repetoire.

This Pacquiao achieved in spite of leapfrogging a division and meeting De La Hoya at a weight class many believed too big for him. Everybody, this writer included, dismissed the fight beforehand as a huge mismatch and a farcical event not worthy of any attention. But, because of the manner in which the reigning pound for pound king systematically broke down and eventually disposed of his highly favoured opponent, the fight did not look anything remotely farcical; quite the contrary in fact. It was a brilliant exhibition of a game plan that was masterfully executed to perfection, nullifying the huge size advantage of one by exceptional fast hands and feet and tremendous heart by the other.

The boxing experts and self-styled critics were right in one thing though, that the fight was a huge mismatch. It did turn out to be a huge mismatch. Only, they were wrong about who was going to get outmatched badly.

The first round saw the two fighters sizing up each other. De La Hoya tried to establish his left jab, the respected launch pad of his attacks, while Pacquiao tried to measure his reach to that of De La Hoya's as well as the spaces he would need in launching his own attacks from a variety of angles. De La Hoya gained a little success in sticking his left jab early on the first round but failed to build from it as Pacquiao proved to be too slippery for him.

As De La Hoya miserably failed to set up his jab in the early going, Pacquio successfully established his trademark straight left during the first round, which would pose constant problems for De La Hoya throughout the fight. He had no answer to that beautiful roll of his little opponent-a swift straight left to his face, quickly followed by a side step to his right side and a pivot-when moving in, sometimes under his left jab.

That sublime movement simply dictated the complexion of the whole fight. Pacquiao was everywhere in the ring and De La Hoya never had a stationary target, save for very few occasions. After three rounds, where every indication that De La Hoya's legs weren't there and he was no match to his lightning quick opponent had all been laid-out and exposed totally, Pacquiao then stepped up his attack in the fourth.

He was all over the ring hitting De La Hoya with every kind of shot find in the book: a right jab, a double right jab, a quick left cross to the face, a right hook to the temple and everywhere else along with a barrage of lefts and rights to the body. The Pinoy whirlwind almost connected at will from every conceivable angle. The compubox statistics recorded his power punches connecting at an astonishing rate of 59% compared to 31% of De La Hoya. It was simply a demonstration of utter dominance.

De La Hoya for his part tried his everything to find Pacquiao with his left jab. But you can't hit somebody who is not there. Pacquiao was constantly moving all the time, side to side, repeatedly darting in and out of range and always keeping De La Hoya busy in finding his balance and the mark for his much vaunted left. But Pacquiao was as invisible as he was ferocious in his assaults. By round five, it appeared that Oscar was fighting a losing battle and by the sixth, he already lost it. He was being outclassed totally and the Pinoy lefty was all over him, pummelling him with everything from all angles. De La Hoya did have some moments against Pacquiao: two big straight rights, each in the third and the fourth in addition to three left hooks all to Pacquiao's head during the fifth. But aside from those De La Hoya's very few moments of success in the bout, it was all Pacquiao's show.

At the closing round of the first half of the bout, De La Hoya seemed to have lost his will to win and the threat of his left hook and him being a much bigger guy was gone. Oscar has no answer to the puzzle that was the beautiful straight left of his opponent. He'd already been defeated mentally and all resistance and threat he could pose had been nullified by Pacquiao's speed and brilliant game plan.

But the man who has faced the best fighters his weight reach could offer during his best years in boxing still fought gamely and courageously stood at the seventh round bell. The round that followed saw Oscar receiving the worst beating he had in his entire career. Anyone who has followed boxing for the last fifteen years would get a shock at witnessing the one-sided action orchestrated by Pacquiao in the ring, at the expense of the great De La Hoya. The Golden Boy, with 16 years of illustrious career that was built on facing the best of the best, has never been so hittable like that! It was target practice for Pacquiao and De La Hoya was not fighting back; he’d simply had enough. The fight should have been stopped right there. But his corner wanted another round to launch De La Hoya's last act of resistance as well as his final attempt to carry on his puncher's chance; they warned him they were stopping the fight if he didn’t start throwing punches.

However, the eight round, save for a weak flurry unleashed by De La Hoya in the opening seconds, was pretty much the same as the previous round with him getting the worst battering of his career. The fight was stopped at the end of round 8 at the advice of the ringside physician.

Shocking as it was, the brutal, one sided victory will be etched in the annals of boxing history as one of the astounding upsets and a great feat by a hugely underweight fighter. There is no need for a further debate; Pacquiao's name can now be mentioned in the same breath as Henry Armstrong (149-21, 101 KOs) and Roberto Duran (103-16, 70 KOs). Manny's total demolition of super welterweight Oscar in his tenth weight class was a first in history and will probably remain unequal for many decades to come.