Time to Eat Humble Pie, Boxing Experts: Manny Pacquiao Destroys Oscar De La Hoya

The title of this article is not meant for me, personally. Almost a month ago, I wrote a prediction about the Dream Match, stating that the fight is bound to be extremely close and competitive, and that it will end up as a draw. I felt like a lone voice in the middle of the desert as most boxing experts believed that the Golden Boy will brush aside the diminutive Pacman with hardly a sweat.

Then there was also the vocal minority who thought that the smaller guy has what it takes to demolish the bigger man. Seeing the fight as a draw may look like fence sitting at that time, but I thought that De La Hoya has lost a step or two and can no longer pull the trigger as Freddie Roach said, but will still be in a good position to bully the smaller guy.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that Manny Pacquiao will destroy Oscar De La Hoya so utterly and devastatingly that the proud Golden Boy has even thought of retiring from the sport he has helped build to greater heights.

Okay, I’m just exaggerating. Boxing nowadays is only a shell of its former glory. But De La Hoya has helped revive a bit of public interest in a sport that is fast losing ground to other contact sports like MMA. When was the last time that a boxing figure apart from the Golden Boy has generated so much fascination, adoration, and yes, some repugnance, from mainstream society?

It’s a credit to De La Hoya that he has almost single-handedly raised boxing from the impending oblivion, thanks to his pop star persona, boxing skills and charisma. I feel a certain degree of sadness thinking about what boxing will look like without the Golden Boy.

One part of me rejoiced in seeing the incomparable Pacman overcome the odds to beat the bigger man, but another, smaller, part of me feels sad seeing a great boxer beaten so badly and most likely hang up his gloves for good.

But as much as I hate to see the Golden Boy leave the sport, I feel happy, nay, overjoyed to see the rise of a new boxing legend that could give boxing the much-needed shot in the arm. If there’s one boxer who can replace the Golden Boy as the ultimate ambassador for the sport, it’s Manny Pacquiao.

As proven last Saturday night, Pacquiao has the legendary skills, prowess and fighting spirit that makes him undoubtedly the most fearsome and exciting boxer in this planet today. A former flyweight champion utterly destroying a former middleweight champion is just plain amazing, no matter how you look at it.

Pacman Gobbles Up the So-Called Prophets of Doom

I’m in no position to criticize the boxing experts and analysts who made predictions that De La Hoya will walk over Pacquiao as easily as crossing the street. But those predictions, before the fight, looked sensible enough. De La Hoya’s four-inch height and six-inch reach advantages, on an ordinary day, would have battered Pacquiao into submission.

But this was no ordinary day. This was an extraordinary day for the Filipino spitfire. A day when blistering speed made the size disparity a complete non-factor, a day when every statistic in the book gets thrown out of the window.

Simply because one fighter went into the ring with fierce determination to overcome the odds and rewrite boxing history. And simply because one fighter went old overnight and finally realizes that he has nothing left to offer to the sport he loves.

In a year of the upsets, Manny Pacquiao’s dominance of Oscar De La Hoya serves an exclamation point. People point out that this fight was nothing but a circus, a mismatch if you will.

A few brave souls who offered the suggestion that Pacquiao will knockout De La Hoya where branded as fanatical delusionists who know nothing about boxing. Picking De La Hoya to win was the safe way to go if you don’t want to be labeled as a know-nothing.

But then, the boxing experts who picked De La Hoya to win as if it was a foregone conclusion will never quit the fortune-telling business just because they were flat-out wrong on this one.

As long as boxing matches continue to be made, predicting fights will always be a regular fixture of boxing. Boxing would be a boring and dreary place if not for these soothsayers and prophets of doom, and who would not relish the idea of saying “I am right and you are wrong!”?

In the end, it’s not the so-called doubters and naysayers that count, but the fighter itself. Manny Pacquiao defeating the legendary Oscar De La Hoya will not shut these so-called boxing experts up, but it gives notice to the world that you can never always dismiss the underdog.