We’re right but just a little worried about the media frenzy when lavish promotions were made for the Pacquiao-De La Hoya Dream Match at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada — that it was a mismatch! At first we thought it was with Manny “The Pacman” Pacquiao, being the smaller and less famous underdog, trying to fight with the bigger and most marketable boxer “Golden Boy”, Oscar De La Hoya — and yes, it really was a mismatch! Pacquiao came out a victor over De La Hoya and the Filipino ring hero continued to validate his status as the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter when he defied the odds in knocking out boxing icon De La Hoya in their welterweight Dream Match on Dec. 6 ‘08. We wonder if sister Judith and her hubby saw this great match live as it was held just a short drive from their Nevada home. Pacquiao landed almost 3x as many total punches as De La Hoya, almost 4x as many power shots and landed 59% of all power shots he threw.
See the complete Dream Match statistics:
• TOTAL PUNCHES THROWN: Pacquiao 585, De La Hoya 402.
• TOTAL PUNCHES CONNECTED: Pacquiao 224, De La Hoya 83.
• TOTAL CONNECT PERCENTAGE: Pacquaio 38%, De La Hoya 21%.
• JABS THROWN: Pacquiao 252, De La Hoya 238.
• JABS CONNECTED: De La Hoya 32, Pacquiao 29.
• JAB CONNECT PERCENTAGE: De La Hoya 13%, Pacquiao 12%.
• POWER PUNCHES THROWN: Pacquiao 333, De La Hoya 164.
• POWER PUNCHES CONNECTED: Pacquiao 195, De La Hoya 51.
• POWER PUNCH CONNECT PERCENTAGE: Pacquiao 59%, De La Hoya 31%.
Pacquiao punished de la Hoya for 8 rounds, his technical knockout triumph over the US superstar underscoring the Filipino icon’s status as best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. His speed and precision were too much for De la Hoya, whose left eye was swelling shut in his battered face as he declined to come out for the 9th round. The Filipino boxing icon Pacquiao has stopped his Mexican-American rival with a brutally dominant performance. Though De La Hoya (39-6) towered over Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 knockouts) and had a big reach advantage over him, Pacquiao had no trouble getting inside what few jabs De La Hoya threw to land his shots. De La Hoya, the 1992 Olympic gold-medal winner and a professional world champion in 6 weight classes, was hammered as he never was in 44 previous bouts before trainer Nacho Beristain mercifully asked referee Tony Weeks to halt the carnage after eight one-sided rounds.
“I’m not shocked because at this stage (of a fighter’s career) when you face someone like Pacquiao, you know it’s going to be a hard fight,” De La Hoya said before leaving the ring. “My style is to go forward and he was boxing on his toes.”
Pacman’s boxing record to date:
Regional and Minor Titles
* OPBF flyweight champion (1997-98)
* WBC International super bantamweight champion (1999-01)
* WBC International super featherweight title (2005-present (Nov 2007))
World Titles
* WBC flyweight champion (1997-98, lost title when he failed to make weight for title bout)
* IBF super bantamweight champion (2001-03, vacated to fight at featherweight)
* WBC Super Featherweight champion
* WBC Lightweight champion
Other Title Claim
Pacquiao was recognized as champion at featherweight by The Ring magazine. The website, Cyber Boxing Zone, also recognizes this claim. Pacquiao vacated his featherweight claim, after his loss to Erik Morales, expressing a desire to continue fighting at 130 pounds.
Awards and Recognition
* 2006 ESPN “Fighter of the Year”
* 2006 Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year
* 2006 Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year
* 2007 World Boxing Hall of Fame “Fighter of the Year”
More on Pacman’s professional boxing record at http://www.hbo.com/boxing/fighters/pacquiao_manny/record.html. (Sources: Yahoo! Sports, CNN News, Philippine Daily Inquirer, http://www.mannypacquiao.com, http://www.mannypacquiao.ph, www.boxrec.com, and http://ph.news.yahoo.com/star/20081210/tsp-pacquiao-greatest-filipino-fighter-d685dba.html).
Leave a Reply