By Mark Vester

Trainer Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain returned to Mexico and wasn't afraid to talk about the key issues of Oscar De La Hoya's knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao. For two months, Nacho trained De La Hoya in Big Bear, California. Nacho, who trains Pacquiao's rival Juan Manuel Marquez, was brought in by De La Hoya to replace Floyd Mayweather Sr. After all the training and all the hype, De La Hoya was beaten up for eight rounds before the fight was stopped by Nacho and others in the corner.

Based on the performance against Pacquiao, Nacho feels that De La Hoya's career has come to an end and best thing for Oscar is to follow the advice of former trainer Freddie Roach - and retire before his health is at risk.

"The reality is that Oscar never had control of the fight. He wanted to, but he wasn't able to. Perhaps this was a sign that the end of his career has arrived. I think trainer Freddie Roach gave him good counsel by telling him to hang up the gloves and not put his health into play," Nacho told ESTO.

De La Hoya weighed-in at 145-pounds, his lightest in twelve-years. De La Hoya had been fighting above the welterweight limit since 2001. The low weight surprised many, but De La Hoya's weight on the day of the fight was even more surprising. He only gained two-pounds, going up to 147, and many expected him to be at least in the high 150s or even 160-pounds or more. The fact that he only put on two pounds sent signals that he killed his body to get down in weight. Nacho says there were no weight issues during camp. He said De La Hoya made the weight with no problems.

"This was a fight that should have been won. Oscar was able achieved a great physical condition during his training. I am a witness that he did not have problems with his weight and he was not dried out from the vapors [of a sauna]. During that time he had a nutritionist by his side who took charge of his weight and diet. But at the time of the fight he couldn't do things well. He couldn't deal with the versatility of Pacquiao," Nacho said.

Nacho was very impressed with Pacquiao's performance. He said De La Hoya did not follow instructions and like Roach told many people during the last few months - De La Hoya could not pull the trigger.

"The Filipino is tremendous. I insisted that he walk to Pacquiao's left side, but he insisted on walking to the other side, toward the right, and only managed to put himself in the line of fire," Nacho said. "The fact is, because of Pacquiao's mobility he couldn't find him."

During the sixth round, Nacho told De La Hoya that he needed to start throwing punches of he was going to stop the fight. De La Hoya asked for one more round to turn the tide. He couldn't. Pacquiao nearly stopped him with a brutal beating during the seventh. Many scored the seventh as a 10-8 round because it was so one-sided. 

"I told him during the sixth round, if you don't throw punches I'm going to stop the fight. He answered that I needed to give him one more round to change the tide, but he couldn't do it. Finally I stopped the fight. I told the referee that it was finished," Nacho said. "The truth is, there were moments when Oscar threw his punches, but Pacquiao surpassed it.  The reaction we expected [from Oscar] was never presented. It was best to put an end to the fight" 

Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com