For all his advantage in height and heft, Oscar de la Hoya remains wary of Manny Pacquiao when they slug it out in their showdown on Dec. 6 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
In their ongoing promotional cross-country tour in the US, De la Hoya, who has probably fought the rowdiest fighters in a checkered 15-year boxing career, said that it’s the silent type of boxers like Pacquiao that scares him a lot.
“De la Hoya said it best when he described me, ‘It’s the silent ones you should be more scared of,’” said Pacquiao in his on-line column.
Still, experts believe De la Hoya will eventually silence Pacquiao in the scheduled 12-round bout as the 10-time champion towers over the Filipino icon, who is tipped to give away at least 20 pounds by the time they finally mix it up in the ring.
These pundits say De la Hoya, has picked up the smaller Pacquiao instead of the likes of tougher guys in the 147-lb division such as Antonio Margarito, Paul Williams or even Miguel Cotto because at 35, he doesn’t want to risk either his looks or his brains against big punchers who are his size or even bigger.
But Pacquiao, a 1-2 underdog, remains confident of pulling off a win over the fancied De la Hoya.
“Some people are criticizing Oscar for picking on a small guy like me. Some people say I’m picking this fight for the money,” Pacquiao said. “I’m going to prove everyone wrong.”
Meanwhile, Pacquiao is back at the Wild Card gym, resuming his training for the keenly awaited fight between the sport’s most bankable star and boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighter.
On Tuesday, the two fighters will meet again for the final leg of their six-stage promo tour in De La Hoya’s East Los Angeles neighborhood. – Dante Navarro