Comments Thread For: Roach Reflects Back on The Pacquaio vs. De La Hoya Decision

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

It was just before a news conference in New York City last week, and Freddie Roach had that glint in his eye. If you write about boxing, the moment you see the glint, you look to the heavens in gratitude.

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[Lou Cipher]

Oscar is still the best 147 fighter next to Pacquiao in my lifetime.

[hectari]

I remember this story, It was during the Mayweather vs De La Hoya training camp, Ivan Calderon first told it but didn't really elaborate, it was only after the Pacquiao De La Hoya fight that Roach spilled the beans completely on the story.

Oscar did some to have trouble with southpaws, maybe because he is a natural southpaw who was converted to orthodox, his left hand is his power hand and a southpaws main weakness is the right hand straight and hook.

He always got tore up by his southpaw sparmates, I remember when Edwin Valero got fired from OScar De La Hoyas training camp, after he gave Oscar a shiner before the Pacquiao fight, and Edwin said Pacquiao will beat up Oscar, later Edwin signed with Top Rank I believe?

[Bronx2245]

Oscar is still the best 147 fighter next to Pacquiao in my lifetime.

I like the guy that beat them both.

[Deevel916]

One of the biggest cherry picks gone wrong! LOL.

[Boxing Goat]

Prime ODLH would have been a nightmare for Pacquiao

[hectari]

One of the biggest cherry picks gone wrong! LOL.

Probably the biggest Cherry pick gone wrong in big fight history that I can recall.


Dude actually called up a featherweight to fight at 147 lol, Oscar was so fixated on Floyd he thought by beating Pacquiao who became the p4p king when Floyd retired it would lure him out of retirement for a rematch.

Plus Floyd wanted the rematch at 147, so Oscar was trying to go down to 147 again, he fought stevie Forbes at a catchweight of 150, and then Pacquiao at 147, problem is he didn't have a good nutritionist to make him make weight, his nutritionist ruined him with that deer and game meat diet, that same diet ruined johnny hendricks and gave him kidney stones and hard stool.

[Boxing Goat]

I like the guy that beat them both.

Neither were still in their prime though

[Bronx2245]

Great article:

"It’s hard to know how future generations will evaluate Oscar De La Hoya.

Oscar is more than a name. He was once a very good fighter, but that time has come and gone. He has lost four of his last seven fights. One can argue that he hasn’t beaten an elite opponent since a split-decision victory over Ike Quartey on February 13, 1999. Since then, De La Hoya has defeated Oba Carr, Derrell Coley, Arturo Gatti, Javier Castillejo, Fernando Vargas, Yori Boy Campas, Felix Sturm, Ricardo Mayorga, and Steve Forbes. That’s nine wins in a decade. Yet during that time, Oscar has become a boxing legend as a consequence of his status as a marketing icon.

Fighters are paid for their marketability, not their ability (although the two are often related). De La Hoya was the right man in the right place at the right time. Initially, the sweet science embraced him as “the anti-Tyson.” Then he benefited from the absence of a true heavyweight champion that the sport could rally around...

One can make a case for the proposition that De La Hoya’s recent outings have become like the fights Mike Tyson had late in his career in that Oscar’s level of achievement no longer justifies the extensive media coverage that he receives. That said, De La Hoya-Pacquiao was backed by a wave of press conferences, press releases, advertisements, and other marketing ploys that added up to what Richard Hoffer of Sports Illustrated called “the single most cynical promotion of [Oscar’s] era.”

In 2006, De La Hoya had sought to woo Pacquiao away from Bob Arum by giving Manny a briefcase filled with US$300,000 in cash over dinner in a private room at a Los Angeles steakhouse. Pacquiao signed a promotional contract with Golden Boy that night but later had second thoughts. After ugly litigation, a settlement was reached. Top Rank (Arum’s promotional company) retained rights to Pacquiao (although since then, Golden Boy has received a percentage of Top Rank’s profits from Manny’s fights).

With that history, Oscar proclaimed, “This fight is very personal for me. I respect Manny Pacquiao as a fighter but not as a man. When we looked into each other’s eyes and shook hands, I felt we had a deal and he betrayed me. Where I come from, you don’t do that. Your word is your bond. He’s going to pay for that on December 6."

The promotion also sought to capitalize on friction between De La Hoya and Freddie Roach. Roach has trained Pacquiao for nineteen fights over the course of seven years. In 2007, he trained Oscar for the Mayweather fight.

“I learned a lot during that eight-week period with Oscar,” Roach said. And Freddie claimed to have learned more when De La Hoya fought Steve Forbes. More specifically, the trainer maintained, “Oscar’s skills are slipping badly. He can no longer pull the trigger. His best years are behind him.”


http://www.secondsout.com/columns/th...ness-of-boxing

[Bronx2245]

Neither were still in their prime though

Was Oscar in his prime when Pac fought him LATER and AT 147? Was Mayweather in his prime when Pac fought him at age 38?