Home 
Las Vegas - If there are still doubts whether or not Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as boxing’s greatest heroes, they were obliterated on Saturday night (Sunday Philippine time).
Flaunting tremendous punching power and blinding hand speed unaffected by his ascent to a higher weight, Pacquiao pummeled Oscar de La Hoya literally to submission.
The Filipino boxing icon hammered out a classic eighth-round TKO (technical knockout) victory at the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena here to notch the biggest victory ever in his career.
“I was connecting with everything. He was connecting with nothing,” Pacquiao later said.
As sweeping as that statement may seem, his smashing performance on the ring in front of more than 16,000 fight fans and a worldwide television audience even made it sound like an understatement.
Unloading volume power punches at a blurry pace, Pacquiao clobbered De La Hoya relentlessly until the corner of boxing’s long-time poster boy could take no more and asked referee Tony Weeks to stop the fight before the ninth-round bell.
“He was the better man,” a humbled De La Hoya admitted after the fight. “He’s a great fighter. He deserves everything.”
“Manny fought the fight we were supposed to fight,” trainer Freddie Roach said.
The 29-year-old Pacman hiked his record to 48-3-2 and his knockout count to 36.
De La Hoya slipped to 39-6 (30 KOS). More notable is the fact that of those six losses, the Golden Boy had only been stopped once before — to Bernard Hopkins — and while he was counted out after a shot to the body there, he didn’t receive the kind of sustained beating he took Saturday night (Sunday in the Philippines).
It was so severe that the 35-year-old former Olympic champion had to be rushed to the hospital after the bout as a safety precaution.
“My heart still wants to fight,” De La Hoya said when asked if his defeat signals the end of his decorated boxing career. “I love the sport, but physically…we’ll see what comes after this fight.”
Pacquiao climbed the ring a 2-1 underdog. But that changed in the second round when he uncorked a series of combinations, including one capped by a vicious uppercut that made De La Hoya realized that Pacquiao had carried with him his power when he climbed to the ranks of the welterweights.
In the seventh round, Pacquiao chased De La Hoya from one corner to the other with a barrage of blows so unrelenting that even those who were watching the fight found it hard to keep pace.
The reigning lightweight champion rocked De La Hoya in one corner. At one point of a series of combinations, he had the Golden Boy sitting on the ropes.
When the eighth round came, Pacquiao again took the fight to De La Hoya, who could not jab his way out of trouble anymore. He tried to turn things around with a combination to the body and then later mixing it up with head shots.
But he lost grip of the round again when Pacquiao caught him with a stunning four-punch combination.
With each blow finding its mark, a layer of greatness was stripped off the 10-time champion, leaving trainer Nacho Beristain with no choice but to put an end to the beating.
“I did not want to leave his greatness in the ring,” Beristain said.
And almost instantly, Pacquiao’s own legend was cemented.
Amid the cheers from the crowd was the unmistakable stunned silence from the De La Hoya camp, which was a bigger slice of the audience pie.
The fall of the person who had — almost on his own — rescued boxing from dearth of talent at the centerpiece heavyweight class was so sudden and unexpected, that for a while, the post-fight statements from his camp sounded like a eulogy for a career obviously way past its shelf life.
“Let’s not forget that Oscar de La Hoya had a hell of a career,” said Hopkins, the 43-year-old middleweight went from top De La Hoya rah-rah boy during the weigh-in Friday to his chief apologist after fight night. “He is a 10-time world champion and some guys don’t even get to have one.”
Pacquiao entered the ring with his only hope resting on the wing of a prayer whispered by a nation an entire ocean away.
It was fitting that Pacquiao paid tribute to his countrymen.
“I thank all my countrymen for their support. I hope I have given you a reason to walk with your head held up high, proud that you are a Filipino.”
Outboxed, outclassed
Hopkins earlier said Pacquiao did not stand a chance against the taller De La Hoya. He was not the only one who had that view. Several people even feared for Pacquiao’s safety. The bout was even dubbed as a mismatched.
It was, indeed, a mismatch but against De la Hoya and not Pacquiao. Even the numbers crunched out by CompuBox backed that view.
The statistics showed that Pacquiao threw more punches, 585-402, and connected on more of them, 224-83.
The statistics on the power punches were even more telling.
Pacquiao threw 333 punches and rocked De La Hoya with 195 of them for a 59-percent clip. De La Hoya, on the other hand, unloaded 164 power punches and connected on 51 for a paltry 31 percent.
Over the last three rounds, Pacquiao connected 97 times there against just 21 by De La Hoya, who did not have much of a target to work with as Pacquiao kept moving in and out and weaving side to side all night.
The judges also scored it overwhelmingly in favor of Pacquiao.
Stanley Christodoulou had it 79-72, while both Adalaide Byrd and Dave Morreti scored 80-71, all in favor of the Filipino boxing superstar. All three scored the big seventh round 10-8 despite no knockdowns scored there.
The Inquirer, meanwhile, had it at 79-72.
But the six-division champion fought the best he could, according to the wise boxing sage who helped prepare him for this “Dream Match.”
“I think Oscar de La Hoya gave everything he had,” said legendary trainer Angelo Dundee. “Oscar was ready to win. He had all the answers (to Pacquiao’s power) but even the best laid plans of mice and men go bye-bye.”
“Pacquiao was the better man tonight,” Dundee added. “I really thought Oscar will win. You brag about it and you hope you’re right. (But) I was wrong. I hope I get it right next time.”
Smashing victory
The smashing victory virtually forged another potential blockbuster at an even bigger venue.
Pacquiao may fight against junior welterweight champion Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton at London’s Wembley Stadium, which can pack 100,000 people between May and June.
“That’s a great fight because you have two action fighters right there,” Roach said.
But he said he wants his ward to rest for six months before fighting Hatton.
Floyd Mayweather, who also defeated De La Hoya last year before retiring, is also being eyed as a possible foe in what could be a classic battle for boxing’s mythical pound-for-pound throne.
“If it were up to me,” Roach said, “I’d like Manny to fight just two more fights and retire the greatest fighter ever.”
That may not be that far off.
As boxing promoter Bob Arum celebrated on the ring, hugging trainer after trainer and pumping fists at the general direction of press row, the one thing that zoomed through his mind was that this was the second greatest match he had ever promoted.
“(This ranks) next to the night when George Foreman won the heavyweight championship of the world by knocking out Michael Moorer,” Arum said, referring to the fight that made Foreman, at 45, the oldest heavyweight world champion in history.
De La Hoya climbed the ring at 147, just two pounds gained from Friday’s weigh-in.
“Oscar looked like he prepared to make the weight,” Roach said. “We prepared to fight.”
Pacquiao definitely looked the stronger fighter. After finding his range in the second round, he peppered De La Hoya with crisp jabs and combinations until the Golden Boy’s left eye started puffing up with all the hits it was taking.
In the seventh round, De La Hoya started losing his legs and it became clear that the night was headed for a shocking ending, even if De La Hoya himself acknowledged the writing on the wall.
“I wasn’t shocked,” De La Hoya said. “It was almost expected. I trained hard in the gym but I told everyone that it’s a different story once you’re in the ring. Manny works on his toes. He waits for me to make a mistake.”
And that was what Pacquiao did, taking advantage every time De La Hoya left him with an opening to work with.
“I was too fast for him,” Pacquiao said. “Speed was the key in this fight.”
