By Jake Donovan
Going into the fight, the assessment of Manny Pacquiao’s leap-frogging through weight classes conjured up memories of boxing’s most famous triple threat, Henry Armstrong.
It was more than 70 years ago when the legendary human windmill became the only fighter in boxing history to simultaneously reign as lineal champions in three separate weight classes, ruling the roost at – in order – featherweight, welterweight and lightweight.
There was no world title – or trinket of any kind – at stake in Saturday night’s main event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, but present day pound-for-pound king Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao doesn’t need a belt around his waist to keep the discussion relevant.
No longer does the discussion end with his referral as a modern day Henry Armstrong. It instead extends to where he belongs amongst the ranks of names like Robinson, Armstrong, Ali, Louis, Duran, Greb and Leonard after racking up the most high-profile win of his career, scoring an upset of the ages after forcing Oscar de la Hoya to quit on his stool after eight shockingly one-sided rounds.
A boxing match threatened to break out in the early going, with de la Hoya working behind the jab, though often falling way short. Pacquiao remained on the outside, measuring up Oscar in seeking the perfect opportunity to creep inside. That moment would come a minute in, when the Pinoy phenom cracked him with a straight left and a right hook.
It was Pacquiao who remained the aggressor for most of the round, though de la Hoya rediscovered his jab with about a minute to go. The stick hardly bothered Pacquiao, who came right back with consecutive straight lefts to seal the round.
Both fighters came out far more determined in the second, trading straight shots upstairs at center ring. de la Hoya’s right hand has often been dismissed as irrelevant throughout his legendary career, but it was his most effective weapon in the early going.
The only problem was that his best shots were matched and trumped by the perceived smaller fighter, who was repeatedly scoring with his straight lefts and also effective with rapid-fire combinations to the body.
Action slowed considerably in the third, primarily due to de la Hoya’s inability to pin down Pacquiao or time him coming in, the method by which most predicted as the key to his chopping down the smaller fighter. Pacquiao’s constant in and out movement has given many a fighter a problem through the years, an issue to which de la Hoya became all too familiar as the 10’s on the official scorecards began to pile up in favor of the considerable underdog.
Pacquiao dominated the fourth round, to the tune of landing 68% of his punches landed in the frame, and carried it over into the fifth as well. The straight left remained virtually unstoppable, as was just about any other punch Pacquiao chose to throw in the round.
A brief bailout moment came late in the round, when de la Hoya landed a hard right hand to the body that momentarily froze Pacquiao. A series of left hooks followed, though each aided by de la Hoya wrapping his right hand around Pac’s dome, though Manny regrouped and finished the round strong.
de la Hoya tried on counterpunching for size, standing back in seeking to land his jab on an incoming Pacquiao. It didn’t work, as Pacquiao never deviated from his initial script of moving in and out, constantly moving his head and never recklessly charging in. The sold-out crowd continued to ooh and ahh as left hands and right hooks would touch de la Hoya’s dome, with the first half coming to a close and boxing’s biggest blockbuster rapidly running out of rounds.
The given assumption heading into the second half was that if de la Hoya didn’t win the seventh, he badly needed a knockout to win the fight.
The exact opposite would happen, with Pacquiao enjoying his best round of the fight to that point. It was quite possibly the worst round of Oscar’s career, with the threat of being stopped looming overhead as Pacquiao battered him from one corner to another. The beating was so bad that all three judges scored the round 10-8 even without the presence of a knockdown.
There almost wasn’t an eighth round, with the ringside physician giving de la Hoya a long hard look. Newly hired trainer, the legendary Ignacio Beristain informed his high profile charge that a lack of significant punch output would make this the last round of the fight – and quite possibly his career.
Though the quote was meant to a question about potential retirement, a de la Hoya post-fight sound byte best summed up what the final three minutes would produce.
“My heart still wants to fight, but when your physical doesn’t respond, what can you do?”
You can do nothing more but take further punishment, which is about all that Oscar did well on this evening. The action was far tamer in the round than the prior seven, though Pacquiao made plenty of noise in the second half of the round. Rapid fire shots to the body kept de la Hoya pinned in a corner, with straight lefts further reddening and swelling his multimillion dollar face.
There wouldn’t be another punch thrown once the bell sounded to end the eighth round. But the mightiest blow of de la Hoya’s career was about to be dealt by men without boxing gloves.
“You have a headache?” asked the ringside physician. “Do you have a headache?”
No response from Oscar.
“Listen,” instructed referee Tony Weeks, who remained a ghost for much of a fight, always a good thing for a third man. “If you keep taking punches, I’m stopping the fight.”
Still no response, but the inevitable was about to become a reality.
“Vamos a terminarlo,” insisted Nacho Beristain. The obligatory HBO translation was offered, but the message was crystal clear, with Oscar's silence and dejected demeanor while sitting on a stool speaking a universal language.
The back and forth amongst the corner continued, with de la Hoya remaining silent.
Finally, one last confirmation from employee to boss man.
“One more round, or is that it?”
Silence from de la Hoya, which meant the latter was the correct answer. Just sixteen seconds longer than it took for Roberto Duran to belt out his infamous “No Mas” in his rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard 28 years ago, Oscar de la Hoya was forced to concede, 3:00 of round eight.
The longest walk of de la Hoya’s career would follow, from his stool to across the ring, where one future Hall of Famer embraced another.
The win is more than a win for Pacquiao. It becomes grounds for his claiming Fighter of the Year honors for the second time in three years. With the stoppage, Pacquiao scores his third win in as many weight classes in 2008, all in a span of nine months.
The year began with his scintillating split decision win in his March rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, claiming the junior lightweight title in the process. Three months later in the very same arena, Pacquiao made his lightweight debut, but looked like he’d been there for years as he systematically destroyed then-titlist David Diaz inside of nine rounds.
No title was at stake in this fight, one many predicted would be a gross mismatch. Most were right, though for all of the wrong reasons. Least surprised, but certainly most appreciative, among them was Pacquiao himself.
“I’m so lucky because I got the fight in the first round,” said Pacquiao, who advances to 48-3-2 (36KO) with his ninth straight win. “We were working every day in the gym on speed being the key and we used it tonight.”
The writing was on the wall early in the fight, but Pacquiao was still intent on making a major statement, leaving nothing to chance until the outcome was confirmed.
“I hit him with a lot of hard punches in the last two rounds. I didn’t want to get too confident and still worked on counterpunching his right hand and keep my right hand up because his hook is very strong.”
The architect behind Pacquiao’s game plan, longtime trainer Freddie Roach was pleased with his fighter’s efforts, even if it’s what he envisioned all along.
“I just knew I had the younger, fresher guy,” said Roach in backing up his pre-fight prediction of – yes, a stoppage around the eighth or ninth round. “I saw him very sluggish in the Forbes fight, I said he couldn’t pull the trigger anymore and I was proven right.”
It was the final parting shot of the night and the promotion. Months of vented bad feelings between corners – most notably between Roach and de la Hoya - were ultimately squashed, if at least for the moment, as both fighters reflected on the brilliance exuded by Manny Pacquiao, undoubtedly one of boxing’s all-time greatest.
“Manny Pacquiao is a great fighter and deserves all of the credit in the world,” said de la Hoya moments after suffering just the second stoppage loss of his career. “He’s just a great fighter; I have nothing bad to say about him. He deserves everything he’s accomplished.”
As does de la Hoya, though it’s clearly time to consider those achievements as the year and his career comes to a close. The loss is now his fourth in his last seven fights, falling to 39-6 (30KO) overall. He’s captured lineal titles in three weight classes, and alphabet titles in three more, but even more importantly becoming the face of boxing for more than a decade.
But all that’s left now is to pass the torch. That step took place immediately after Oscar pondered the dreaded r-word, instead turning his attention to more encouraging thoughts.
“Oscar, you’re still my idol,” was what the always humble Pacquiao whispered to de la Hoya during one last mid-ring embrace.
Oscar appreciated the words, but refused to accept the compliment.
“No, now you’re my idol.”
And the idol to millions of others as well, for this night and beyond.
Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .
