Pacquiao and De la Hoya: Who is Who in a Boxing Mismatch

Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, one of the world’s boxing sensations, has developed self-confidence bigger than his head. He will now fight in the level good only to a heavier boxer. He is a forklift being paired-off to a crane truck. And not of ordinary fighter building a name in boxing world but of the same power and wealth as Pacman.

 

The fight division Pacquiao is being drawn may be too much in his class. This is the level where a lightweight boxer is shifting to a welterweight division not for the reason of a boxer’s skills or unusual ability but in view of his uncontrolled weight, social standing, and age slowing movements. The limit of Pacquiao’s skills is in the lightweight division and his handlers maybe underestimating the strength of the upper level boxers. Pacman is being fitted to Oscar de la Hoya in his next fighting assignment on December 6, 2008, at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a 12-round and non-title fight at 147-pound welterweight limit.

 

Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao, his real name, is a certified pound for pound boxer and a southpaw –Floyd Mayweather is the number one pound for pound boxer but due to his retirement the title was relegated to Pacquiao. Pacquiao, an awardee of the prestigious Ring Magazine as “Fighter of the Year,” had gone a long way in boxing. He has outgrown his class and successfully won the championship title of four boxing divisions, i.e. flyweight, super bantamweight, super featherweight, and lightweight. Now he is aiming for a welterweight limit (147 lbs.) and will be fighting a boxer with a super slugging calibre where both fighters are noted for. His opponent has been in the middleweight division (160 lbs.) going down to the welterweight fight limit. Both were on the same level of prominence and have built the same reputations they are competing and that is to be the “who is who in boxing.”

 

Oscar “Golden Boy” De la Hoya, a Mexican origin and American fighter, is a big name in boxing sports. He has outfought well-known boxers and champion of seven weight title divisions. The prizes he earned brought him fortunes as well as Pacquiao is savouring now. Both fighters are accumulating wealth out of their boxing profits. These only show that both are not only good boxers but commercial entrepreneurs as well. And the fight they are engaging now is presumed not for their fighting skills but for the promotion of boxing industry and the build up of power and wealth –De la Hoya is the founder of Golden Boy Promotions Handling their fight with Top Rank Inc., while Pacquiao is being politicized who ran and lost in the Philippine Congress election and is now being groomed by a big political party for a big post in 2010 election.

 

The fight, being considered as a mismatch, has the similarities with the failed campaign of another Filipino boxing champion in the person of Gabriel “Flash” Elorde. He also outgrowth his rank as a super featherweight champion and aimed for a lightweight division. His opponent was Carlos Ortiz, a Puerto Rican American champion who rose to the level of Jr. welterweight champion and went back to lightweight level to fight for Elorde. The fight proved too much for Elorde and led to the downfall of his boxing career.

 

I don’t want the fate of Elorde to happen with Pacquiao, our admired boxing hero.