Oscar’s biggest, richest card

Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming fight with Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio, Texas will be Oscar dela Hoya’s biggest project in his young promotional career with the Golden Boy Promotions staging the big fight on Nov. 15 at the Alamodome.

Dela Hoya, who recently signified his intention to come out of retirement following his loss to Shane Mosley in their junior middleweight clash last month, is the first Hispanic to own a national boxing promotion firm and one of only a handful of boxers in history to have expanded into the business side of boxing.

And from the looks of things, his Pacquiao-Barrera promotion, an HBO-televised event, will hit it big at the turnstiles and on TV owing to the drawing power by two of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.

Barrera, 29, is the linear featherweight champion since defeating Naseem Hamed in 2001 and is recognized as the top 126-pounder in the world. Pacquiao, on the other hand, holds the IBF belt at 122 pounds, and is considered one of the top two junior featherweights in the world along with Oscar Larios.

Although he’ll be taking on Barrera in a non-title fight, Pacquiao has so much at stake in this bout with the Filipino champion raring to make it big in the US for possible mega-buck fights. In fact, Pacquiao, who packs a 37-2-1 (win-loss-draw) mark with 29 KOs, is guaranteed a paycheck of $350,000, the biggest of his career.

Barrera, who scoffed at WBC recognition because of his defiant refusal to pay its sanction fees, has a 57-3 record with 40 KOs. He has won his last eight fights and lost only to Junior Jones twice and Erik Morales in a career that started in 1989. Barrera, the former featherweight champion who distinguished himself as the only fighter to inflict defeats on erstwhile unbeaten champions Hamed Naseem and Morales, is coming off a fourth round stoppage of Kevin Kelly last April.

Meanwhile, the two fighters are set to meet the press in San Antonio on Oct. 16 to formally announce the featherweight showdown. Expected to accompany Pacquiao in the presscon is business manager Rod Nazario’s son Roberto, who was at ringside in all of the boxer’s four fights in the US.

The elder Nazario and boxing pals Ramon Lainez and Gerry Garcia are expected to arrive in the US Oct. 20.

Pacquiao, who demolished Mexican Emmanuel Lucero via a third round knockout to keep the IBF belt in the 122-lb division for the fourth time last July, has been training in earnest under noted coach Freddie Roach since late last month.

Although this will mark the first time that he will fight in the 126-lb category, the Davao-based fighter is confident of pulling off the victory what with his tremendous punching power that lined him among the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter.