Why did de la Hoya agree to fight Pacquiao at 147?

[ELPacman]

Man, the way people hate on Pac because he's Asian is nuts. Racists! lol. Pacquiao had zero interest in Oscar. Oscar called him out, not the other way around as your headline would make it appear. Pacquiao and team simply said, the highest we can go is 147lbs and if you want to meet there, we can make it happen. Oscar said, let's do it. Pacquiao had only one fight at 135lbs up until that point.

Yeah, we know what happened afterwards, but how on earth is Pac at fault? They never once called out Oscar or even thought about the match because Oscar was too big. Oscar hadn't fought at 147lbs in awhile himself. I think the end result was that there would be a balance. Pacquiao would be coming up and be too small for Oscar and that even Oscar coming down, would have too much skill and size for Pacquiao to be too much of a problem for him.

Can't hate on Pacquiao for simply doing his job on that one.

[-Kev-]

*Edited to fix weird iPhone characters*

DLH said he would fight the winner of Cotto-Margarito at 147. The favorite to win that fight was Cotto (for whatever reason. I had Margarito stopping him). But DLH was banking on Cotto winning, not Margarito. He actually promised to fight the winner. Welp, Margarito infamously upset Cotto by stoppage and DLH turned his attention to Pacquiao because Roach said he would (Pacquiao) KO DLH.

And why he wanted to fight at 147 again after 7 years at 154+ who knows, maybe money. The money fighters were at 147 at the time. 154 did not have any big names. It did not have any high profile names except maybe Cory Spinks. And he had already tried 160 and looked like sh/t.

April 2008 The Ring rankings at 154 per boxrec:

1. Cory Spinks
2. Roman Karmazin
3. Oscar De La Hoya
4. Vernon Forrest
5. Joachim Alcine
6. Sergei Dzindziruk
7. Travis Simms
8. Ike Quartey
9. Verno Phillips
10. Sergio Gabriel Martinez

[sargo]

Can you imagine Inoue beating a welterweight even at a catchweight?

Let alone become the oldest champion ever?

[dibzvincent143]

It was really ****** move back than. Ok, Pac was N.1. p4p fighter, but Oscar was a bigger draw and a cash cow. And he was a zombie at 147 than.

Maybe not the best comparison, but it was like Canelo would agree to fight Crawford at 160 now.

because it was the biggest fight he could make at that point and thought it was a cherry pick rather facing margarito who was the boogeyman at that time. It was even called the dream match. Pacquiao moving 2 weigh classes up while delahoya would go 1 division sounded fair during that time and plenty picked oscar to win even peeenoys were against the fight from happening.

[Roadblock]

Can you imagine Inoue beating a welterweight even at a catchweight?

Let alone become the oldest champion ever?

A 10 year WW at 130 would look like Oscar, and you be all WOW with that lol, what we need is a wheelchair clause in case they fall over on the ring walk.

[Roadblock]

Oscar De La Hoya underestimated Manny Pacquiao's abilities at the time 'Pacquiao's power and strength seemed to increased as he moved up through the weight classes'.

Even after Pacquiao's performance against De La Hoya 'I was still not sure whether Manny Pacquiao could really beat a solid more in form top level 147 fighter'.

Although the catch weight vs Miguel Cotto was unnecessary 'Pacquiao's performance against Miguel Cotto one of his best ever'.

That run of fights from Oscar De La Hoya to Shane Mosley, was one of the most brutal and awe inspiring boxing performances since Mike Tyson's first Heavyweight title reign.

In my opinion skill for skill, and in terms of the pure intensity 'There have been very few periods in fighters careers as Champions that compare'.

Note: Floyd Mayweather Junior was overall a greater Champion than Manny Pacquiao, but? He did not really produce the level of performance during his career 'Which was as brutal or awe inspiring as Manny Pacquia's form from Oscar De La Hoya to the Shane Mosely fight'.

I actually rate Floyd Mayweather Junior's wins against De La Hoya and Cotto slightly higher 'Because he fought them both at their most comfortable weights'.

But the manner in which Manny Pacquiao performed vs those fighters and the action produced 'Is what that stage of Pacquiao's career incredibly influential, peak Manny Pacquiao'.

It was difficult to conceptualize how Pacquiao was at times producing those performances 'At the time in the World of sports, only Usain Bolt was up staging Manny Pacquiao in terms of high level awe inspiring performances pound for pound' etc.

Oscar underestimated making 147 killing him that's what happened, he thought he would be to big and strong for Manny, he was wrong as it had the opposite effect.

[-Kev-]

Oscar underestimated making 147 killing him that's what happened, he thought he would be to big and strong for Manny, he was wrong as it had the opposite effect.

DLH was so dehydrated that he gained only 1 more pound on fight night and Pacquiao was the bigger man by 1lb. I think DLH was 147 and Pacquiao was 148 in the ring. That’s some extreme dehydration.

[Roadblock]

DLH was so dehydrated that he gained only 1 more pound on fight night and Pacquiao was the bigger man by 1lb. I think DLH was 147 and Pacquiao was 148 in the ring. That’s some extreme dehydration.

True, worse than LaLonde and Chad Dawson, I may be wrong but I cant remember a worst case of a drained fighter in my 60 yrs of following boxing, and that's not Mannys fault Oscar did it to himself, he tried to gain an advantage and it backfired and gave him a massive handicap, fanboys cant see it for what it is.

[4truth]

Oscar wasn't at 147 for Pac, he was at 147 for the Mayweather rematch. If a fight at 147 had happened in September as it was supposed to, I think Oscar would have been okay, or at least nearly so. Staying at that weight for a couple months didn't work out well for him.

[Roadblock]

Oscar wasn't at 147 for Pac, he was at 147 for the Mayweather rematch. If a fight at 147 had happened in September as it was supposed to, I think Oscar would have been okay, or at least nearly so. Staying at that weight for a couple months didn't work out well for him.

If it happened in Sep he would have been wrecked in September he couldn't make 150 at that stage of the game, he had out grown 147 as soon as he was locked in at 154 for 7 years with fights at 160, he was never going to make 147 again.