By Brent Matteo Alderson
Not to diminish Manny Pacquiao’s accomplishment, he’s a first ballot hall-of-famer and the kind of fighter that would have been great in any era, but Oscar De La Hoya was dead at the weight. Like the vast majority of observers, Oscar thought that making 147 pounds was his biggest obstacle and that walking through Pacquiao was a mere formality and didn’t foresee how the weight-shift was going to impact his effectiveness.
It was obvious from the outset that most of Oscar’s concentration in camp was on comfortably making the 147 pound limit because throughout the pre-fight hype he seemed pre-occupied with it and by fight-night his head looked too big for his body and his limbs and torso were grotesquely thin. Making the 147 pound limit impacted Oscar much worse than it should have because his team went about the process the entirely wrong way. Instead of coming down to 151 pound and then drying out in order to weigh 147 pounds for about ten minutes like he should have, he actually burned significant amounts of muscle during training which threw his body’s natural equilibrium into disarray and drastically affected his performance.
Professional trainer Henry Ramirez felt that Oscar should have came in much heavier and commented, “I wasn’t surprised that De La Hoya lost because I actually thought Manny had a chance, but I was shocked by how Oscar was so thoroughly dominated. I definitely think it was a mistake for him coming in below 147 pounds. I would have went about making the weight differently and utilized all of the weight allowance that was allocated, but Oscar had a great team behind him and I’m sure that was part of their game plan, but you know the old saying, you spend months trying to make weight and you’re only there for a few moments.”
De La Hoya hadn’t been that light since he defended the WBC 140 pound title against Miguel Angel Gonzalez in January of 1997 when President Clinton was barely starting his second term in office.
Hall of famer and five-time world Champion Emile Griffith also believes that going back down to a weight class can negatively impact a fighter, “After fighting for so many years as a middleweight, I felt weaker when I fought Jose Napoles for the Welterweight title. I had no trouble making 147, but I didn’t feel as strong when I was hit.”
Throughout recent boxing history there has been numerous incidences when the fighters as well as the boxing fraternity thought moving down to a weight class or dropping significant amounts of weight would be advantageous, only to be gravely mistaken.
Chris Byrd tangled with some of the best heavyweights in the world and had solid wins over some good heavyweights like Golota, Tua, and Holyfield, but when he twice found himself completely outsized against Wladimir Klitschko, he listened to boxing insiders that felt he would be able to dominate at the lower weights since he was already one of the world’s better heavyweights.
Even HBO’s Max Kellerman pleaded with Byrd to drop to Cruiserweight so he could build a meaningful championship legacy, but Chris just didn’t drop down to cruiserweight, he lost significant amounts of fat and muscle mass and went all the way down to the light-heavyweight limit of 175 pounds.
And even though he looked to be in excellent shape, the dramatic decrease in weight threw off his body’s natural equilibrium and he was knocked out by the lightly regarded Shaun George on ESPN II.
The fact that the weight-loss hurt Byrd is supported by the outcome of his performances. Shaun George stopped him in nine rounds at the lower weight while it took Alexander Povetkin, a super-heavyweight gold medalist and one of best heavyweights in the world - eleven rounds to stop him in his prior fight.
Byrd and De La Hoya aren’t the only fighters that have been negatively impacted by their decisions to drop significant amounts of weight. After moving up to heavyweight to fight John Ruiz in March 0f 2003, Roy Jones came back down to light-heavyweight in his very next fight and was lucky to have won a close decision against Antonio Tarver. And most experts feel that the irregular changes in his weight exasperated the rate of his Roy’s physical decline. Consequently Roy Jones never displayed the athletic artistry that he displayed before the move back down to light-heavyweight.
Coincidently a similar thing happened to his nemesis Antonio Tarver. The Magic Man bulked about to about 220 pounds in order to play Mason Dixon in Rocky Six and then he looked lethargic and his reflexes seemed to be shot when he went back down to 175 pounds to fight Bernard Hopkins.
That’s not to say that Pacquioa or Hopkins couldn’t have won those fights if it hadn’t been for the dramatic weight change, it’s just to shed light on the fact that fighting at the lower weight didn’t enhance their performances, but negatively impacted them.
In a recent interview with beat-writer Robert Morales, Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer also felt that the weight issue was a major factor in determining the outcome of the bout, “The fight's at 147, it's not at 143," Schaefer said. "You never have to make 143. What's the point? You gave up the biggest advantage. His biggest advantage was not his youth, it was not his speed. It was his weight, his size advantage. And he gave that away.”
The way De La Hoya looked listless and incapable of fighting at the world class level after losing a close split decision to Floyd Mayweather just 18 months before supports the fact that the fluctuation in weight completely zapped his body and left him dead at the weight.
FAVORITE QUOTES:
One time a referee asked Heavyweight Chuck Wepner how many fingers he was holding up and Chuck responded with, “How many guesses do I get?”
Not to further belittle Joe Frazier, but some of the stuff Ali said to him was so off the wall it was funny. Prior to their third fight Ali commented, “He’s so ugly his face should be donated to the bureau of wild life.”
I think Oscar will beat Chavez Jr, but seriously doubt if one of his fights will ever break the 1 million pay-per-view mark again. 500,000 sounds about right for that fight since there would be so much intrigue and name recognition.
I think circa 1997, Roy Jones would have beaten Evander Holyfield.
Chris Arreola can’t outbox Wladimir Klitschko, but he might be able to out-fight him.
It was recenty reported that fight manager Dave Wolfe recently passed away. Even though I didn’t know him personally, Dave was one of the boxing personalities of the 1980's and always did everything he could to help his fighters get the most out of their careers. He helped make Ray Mancini and Don Lalonde millionaires and might had done the same with Lonnie Bradley, but a bitter-fued and some bad luck prematurely ended Bradley’s career. I never understood their fued, because Wolfe maneuvered Bradley into a title fight for the vacant WBO title against a guy with a 13-6 record. Hell that type of management even had Joe Jacobs smiling in his grave. Rest in Peace Mr. Wolfe, you are immortalized in boxing history through the careers of Sugar Ray Leonard and Ray Mancini.
Brent Matteo Alderson, a graduate of UCLA, has been part of the staff at BoxingScene.com since 2004. Alderson's published work has appeared in publications such as Ring Magazine, KO, World Boxing, Boxing 2008, and Latin Boxing Magazine. Alderson has also been featured on the ESPN Classic television program “Who’s Number One?” Please e-mail any comments to BoxingAficionado@aol.com
