Oscar recalls Manny bout

The Ring Magazine published a special tribute in honor of Oscar de la Hoya for its September 2022 issue and in a featured article called “Greatest Hits,” The Golden Boy revisited six of his self-proclaimed “career-defining” fights. One was his last bout against Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, on Dec. 6, 2008. The others were his fourth-round stoppage of Julio Cesar Chavez in 1996, his split 12-round decision over Ike Quartey in 1999, his loss to Felix Trinidad by a majority 12-round verdict in 1999, his defeat to Sugar Shane Mosley by a split 12-round decision in 2000 and his win over Fernando Vargas via an 11th-round TKO in 2002.

It’s interesting that De la Hoya chose three setbacks among his six “career-defining” contests. He never had any qualms about losing. De la Hoya took his defeats like a man, knowing his journey in the fight game stood glowingly on its own through the ups and downs. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014 and his statue stands outside the Crypto.com Arena (formerly the Staples Center) in Los Angeles alongside legends like Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Elgin Baylor, Wayne Gretzky and broadcaster Chick Hearn.

Here’s De la Hoya’s commentary on his duel with Pacquiao:

“There’s so many (big fights) but I’m going to go with Pacquiao. The final fight of my career. What people tend to forget, I went up to fight Bernard Hopkins at 160. After the fight, I try to come back down to 147 and fight Pacquiao. Obviously, cutting that much weight in boxing is a no-no but what people don’t know is I weighed 145 for that fight because I had bad nutrition. I had hired a new nutritionist, a new trainer and everything went wrong. I lost a lot of muscle. Plus my age, I was already older.

“I fought this kid who nobody knew and his name was Manny Pacquiao and a star was born. He captured the moment. He became the superstar he is today. It was a thrilling career for me and I was able to hang them up, not at the best moment I wanted to but I knew that was the end. I tried to fight (everybody). The reason I didn’t fight Vernon Forrest was because he got knocked out by (Ricardo) Mayorga and I fought Mayorga.”

De la Hoya was 35 when he retired on his stool at the end of the eighth round while Pacquiao was 11 days short of turning 30. It was De la Hoya’s trainer Nacho Beristain who raised the white flag before the start of the ninth. No title was at stake in the match but the victory propelled Pacquiao to unprecedented heights, winning the superlightweight, welterweight and superwelterweight belts in succession as he became the only fighter in history to capture belts in eight weight divisions.

After De la Hoya hung up his gloves, he engaged in two exhibitions, one with O’Neal whom he decisioned in five rounds in Paradise, Nevada in 2009 and the other in a no-decision three-rounder with TV host Mario Lopez in Salt Lake City in 2016. Pacquiao retired after losing the super WBA welterweight strap to Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas in Las Vegas last year and will face martial arts guru DK Yoo in a six-round exhibition in Seoul on Dec. 10. It will be Pacquiao’s second exhibition as the first was with Filipino-Hawaiian Jesus Salud in a three-round decision in Honolulu in 2002 during his reign as the IBF superbantamweight champion.