By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Oscar De La Hoya’s rapid loss of weight, in order to be able to meet the stipulated weight limit of 147 pounds for his December 6 showdown with Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, could have caused a reported rotor cuff injury in his left shoulder.

Trainer Freddie Roach’s claim that he knew the secret as to why De La Hoya whom he trained for the Floyd Mayweather Jr fight couldn’t pull the trigger and  stopped using the left jab after  six rounds which cost him the fight, is no longer a secret.

Award-winning boxing writer T.K. Stewart of Boxing Scene has noted that De La Hoya has had a slight tear of the rotator cuff for the past few years and made mention of the injury after his spectacular sixth round demolition of  Ricardo Mayorga in May 2006.  

In fact it hampered his sparring and there have been claims allegedly even by the HBO crew that shot footage of his training for the riveting 24/7 series that De La Hoya was having trouble with his left shoulder and that was one of the reasons Roach claimed he was “beat up” by Victor “Vicious” Ortiz in sparring and never sparred  with him again.

Television footage taken during an open media workout hosted by De La Hoya at his Big Bear training camp showed him fooling around with a comedian as sparring partner and while he did show some hand-speed working on the punch- mitts and pounding the heavy bag there have been several occasions as  Stewart reported “where the left shoulder appears as though it is still a problem for him and that he is receiving special treatment.”

The use of a neoprene shoulder support by De La Hoya strengthens Roach’s claims even as the supposed resort to acupuncture indicates all may not be well physically with “The Golden Boy.”

The shoulder support brace provides therapeutic heat retention and helps relieve the pain and discomfort of shoulder instability due to injuries and chronic shoulder conditions.

Pacquiao’s conditioning expert Alex Ariza told insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that while he had no knowledge of Roach’s supposed secret he explained that “sometimes what happens when you lose weight like that, is you get what they call vascular dehydration and you become susceptible to injury due to the lack of water.”

He added, “I’m not sure if that’s what occurred but it could be due to loss of weight. It can happen to anyone if you drop a lot of weight.”  De La Hoya is coming down to the stipulated weight of 147 pounds for the first time in some six years, to fight Pacquiao.

Ariza said that Pacquiao sparred Tuesday (Wednesday, Manila Time) with Rashad Holloway (9-1, 5 KO's), undefeated Marvin Cordero (20-0-1, 11 KO's) and Dean "Irish Lightning" Byrne (9-0, 3KO's). He said Pacquiao went ten rounds  and “took it easy because he didn’t want to push himself too much and is tapering down now.” . 

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum in an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports was more confident than ever that Pacquiao “will wear Oscar down, beat him and see his face cut and take him out in one of the later rounds.”

While noting that De La Hoya has been training hard, Arum said he always trains hard but “the reports that we have is that he has not looked great in training.”

While confident that Pacquiao would win and that he would be in Manila for a giant victory parade on December 12, Arum brushed aside reports of a possible showdown with Britain ’s Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton or the chance of enticing Floyd Mayweather Jr out of retirement.

He said “this is a big enough fight and we are not looking ahead at anything, any future opponent, nothing. We will discuss it and see what’s out there after the fight” at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6. However, Arum did say that Pacquiao “wants to fight at 140.”