De La Hoya vs. Pacquaio
How big is Saturday night’s welterweight fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao in Pacquiao’s native Philippines?
Police are expecting a zero crime rate in Manila during the fight, as well as a 30 percent reduction in traffic. In addition, all of Manila’s sports complexes will be showing live telecasts of the fight. So, yeah, Pacquiao is kind of a big deal in his home country.
But Pacquiao also is a +150 underdog on WagerWeb.com for the bout against the Golden Boy, mostly because of the size difference. Pacquiao, who is 5-foot-6½, began his boxing career at 106 pounds and as recently as last March was fighting at 130 pounds. He is moving up to 147 for the first time to face De La Hoya, who is 4 inches taller and has fought mostly at 154 pounds in recent years (De La Hoya hasn’t fought at 147 in seven years). De La Hoya’s reach is 72 inches, compared to 67 inches for Pacquiao. That’s why he’s the -180 favorite on WagerWeb.com.
So, does size matter? Many would say yes, but not Team Pacquiao.
“By fight time, I think Oscar will probably weigh about 160 pounds and Manny will be about 150 pounds,” Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said. “So 10 pounds, I’m not really worried about that because I feel that speed wins this fight — not size.”
Of course Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs) has a six-year age gap on his side, and De La Hoya has lost three of his last six fights (to Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather Jr.).
“I believe my power and my speed can beat him. Even when I’m fighting at lightweight, I’m sparring with middleweights,” Pacquiao, 29, said. “Physically, I feel the same. My speed is still there. I respect Oscar, he is a good fighter, a great warrior in the ring, but I’m not worried about his power.”
This could be the final fight in De La Hoya’s career if he is upset.
“Obviously, if I lose, it’s over for me,” said De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs). “I’m not going to start trying to go back up that mountain again, just to get back to where I am now.”
Most experts are picking a De La Hoya knockout in the late rounds because of the size advantage, but the odds are dropping on the Golden Boy, so a lot of the money is coming in on Pacquiao.
This bout is expected to be the biggest in terms of revenue this year in boxing. It will generate about $17.5 million in live-gate revenue in Las Vegas, plus an estimated 1.5 million pay-per-view buys worth more than $80 million. Of course, all of De La Hoya’s fights draw huge crowds.
The winner of De La Hoya-Pacquiao could fight light-welterweight king Ricky Hatton next summer.
Boxing Betting at WagerWeb.com
