The End of De La Hoya?

In the world of boxing, Oscar De La Hoya has been a huge draw over his career. He has made hundreds of millions of dollars. Last night, in his non-title bout against Manny Pacquiao, his career could have come to a crashing halt.

It was dubbed as "The Dream Match", pitting perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter in Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36KOs) against the Golden Boy, De La Hoya (39-6, 30KOs). It was a huge pay day for both. Pacquiao receiving a guaranteed $11 million (could go higher w/gate & PPV) and De La Hoya getting upwards of at least $22 million plus. The most intriguing question about the fight would be how would the fighters adjust to their major weight changes. Would it affect their speed and stamina?

Pacquiao who normally fights at the Featherweight division (126lbs) had to gain 20 pounds to move up to the Welterweight class (147lbs). Meanwhile, De La Hoya had to lose about 20lbs to move down in class. At the official weigh-in on Friday, Pacquiao came in at 142lbs and De La Hoya weighed in at 145lbs. They were weighed unofficially just before the fight and Pacquiao hit the scales at 148 1/2 to De La Hoya's 147. How would these drastic weight changes affect these fighters? The answer looked evident after the first round.

In front of a crowd of 15,001, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and a World-Wide Pay-Per-View audience, the normally smaller Pacquiao came out as the more dominant fighter. His speed and power in his punches seemed to surprise the more naturally larger De La Hoya. Pacquiao would throw a few quick punches and back out of there quickly to avoid a powerful De La Hoya hook. This strategy seemed to upset the Golden Boy, as he repeatedly would shake his head in frustration. The Pacman would dance around the ring and not give Oscar a chance to land anything effective. This dominance by Pacquiao would continue through out the fight as he just pummeled De La Hoya with punch after punch, causing his left eye to swell shut. De La Hoya had nothing. He had no legs, he had no power behind his punches. He looked like an aged fighter, far past his prime. At the end of the 8th round, De La Hoya sat on his stool in his corner as the ring side doctor and his trainers talked about what to do. Behind on virtually every official scorecard, they decided to throw in the towel. Just like that, the fight was over. De La Hoya's career...possibly over. The man who's career took off after winning the Gold Medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, who was boxing's biggest draw over his career, it looks like it's all over.

I know boxers are not the smartest people out there. They retire and unretire as regularly as they change their underwear. I truly hope though that De La Hoya, who has become a very successful promoter in recent years, decides to hang the gloves up and call it a career before something bad happens. This performance last night just shows he has nothing left. He has nothing left to prove to the world anymore. Hang up your gloves Golden Boy, it's over.