DE LA HOYA VS. PACQUIAO PREDICTION
At 130 to 135 pounds, Manny Pacquiao is comparable to a typhoon coming at you at full speed. The opponent across the ring from the typhoon will be a 147 pound living legend, Oscar De La Hoya. When Oscar fought early on at 135 pounds, he too was like a typhoon ripping through the Pacific coast. Fast forward to today and well today Pacquiao may still be a typhoon, and Oscar who now only seems to fight once a year is more of a tycoon than he is a typhoon.
So the younger and fresher typhoon should easily beat the tycoon right? I mean after all the typhoon has speed galore and speed kills so how can a 35 year old tycoon holding a rusty pistol even compete? With smarts, skill, and huge fight experience that’s how, allow me to break it down for you. Manny has also been in big fights but big can not be compared to huge events.
Everytime that Oscar fights, the fight becomes an event. A Oscar fight is comparable to the Super Bowl. Big fights are like playing in a playoff game, sure it’s a big game but the goal is to play in the Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl is where all the stars come out, the media, Senators, Governors, even Bin Laden crawls out of his cave to see the Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl the lights are brighter than ever, the bright lights are zeroing only on you, it is the place where stars are born. For example, before last years Super Bowl between the Giants and the Patriots, Giants quarterback was known as Peyton Manning’s little brother. After the Giants shocked the world and beat the greatest team ever, the Giants quarterback is now known as Eli Manning.
Same can be said about Floyd Mayweather Jr., Floyd was not known in the mainstream crowd, but once he fought Oscar in a huge event, Floyd then went mainstream on us and followed that up with one more fight against Hatton then retired. Today many of us want Floyd to return so he can take on the challenges that await him, however if Floyd had never fought Oscar, how many of us would still want him to return? Would Dancing with the Stars or Acting with the Big Show at Wrestlemania be available to him without the Oscar De La Hoya Experience? Only the smart ones know the answers to that.
So will Manny Pacquiao become MANNY PACQUIAO, or will he stay known as the small Philipino guy that hits hard? Pacquiao can win this fight by #1- staying lower than his height shows and #2- by darting in and out with sharp combination shots and #3- by becoming slippery so that he can slip himself away from the incoming heavy shots of Oscar. That is the only way that I see Pacquiao winning. The first two things, Manny can do but the slippery part is something that you are born with, in other words you can’t teach that. You either have that or you don’t. Ivan Calderon has it. Mayweather Jr. had it. Pernel Whitaker was the master at it. Willie Pep made you look as if you were boxing drunk and Nicolino Loche was also a blur.
For Oscar to win, Oscar must try to jab 20-30 jabs a round to help keep Manny from coming in. If Oscar jabs the way he did when he faced Forbes, then this will be a very easy fight for Oscar. Even if Oscar decides to bang with Manny, Oscar is so skilled especially now with Nacho and Dundee that I feel that Oscar will find Manny’s chin with a cold left. Even if Manny does have his moments, once Manny gets nailed flush, the fight will completely change. Some may say that Manny has way too much heart to be stopped, that Manny has more heart than Oscar. Well the same can be said about Hatton when he faced Floyd. Look where heart left Hatton, laid out like carpet that’s how. At the end of the day Floyd had the skill and the weight. Sometimes my friends skill can outmeasure heart. I am picking Oscar by knockout inside of 7 rounds.
I dedicate this prediction to Manny Pacquiao, Manny I hope that all goes well with you, you always come to entertain us and for that I will always be a fan. Unfortunately for you, I feel that this time you may have bitten off more than you can chew. I leave you with the chorus for Lupe Fiasco’s Superstar song…. And it goes a lil something like this..
If you are what you say you are
a superstar
then have no fear
the crowd is here
and the lights are on and they want a show
oh oh oh oh yeah …
Posted by: Albert Alvarez