By Ronnie Nathanielsz
“The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya is reportedly “devastated” over the bad beating he suffered at the hands of Filipino boxing great Manny Pacquiao in their “Dream Match” at the MGM Grand last weekend which turned into a veritable nightmare for the extremely popular former Olympic gold medalist and winner of six world titles.
In an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he was told by Golden Boy Promotions CEO in a Los Angeles meeting the other day that De La Hoya was “heading for Puerto Rico and would stay there until the first of January and won’t make any appearances or anything.”
Arum said De La Hoya was “really devastated.” He said he “took the fight because he thought it was a walk-in-the-park. So many people said it was a mismatch and that he will make a lot of money.” It didn’t happen that way and he quit seated on his stool in his corner at the end of the eighth round, a badly bruised and battered fighter.
However, Arum who steered De La Hoya’s career to unprecedented stardom praised him for being “the standard bearer for boxing in the past five or six years. By and large he has conducted himself in an exemplary manner and he’s really brought credit to the sport and a lot of attention.”
