I’ve never warmed up to the idea of “The Dream Match,” Saturday night’s event featuring Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya. To me, it’s a dream match only in a financial sense. Competitively, it has only the names of the participants to sell to those who don’t know any better.
Pacquiao, 47-3-2 (35), a national hero in his native Philippines, is the consensus pick as the best pound for pound fighter in the game. The 35 year old De La Hoya, 39-5 (30), is likely the most popular fighter in the sport in the last generation and accordingly is box office and pay per view magic regardless of who he fights.
Oscar is 3-3 over the past five plus years. The last time that he scored two victories in a calendar year was 2001. And the harsh truth is that he has never won any of his big fights anyway, with losses to Trinidad, Hopkins, Mayweather and two to Mosley. So I feel comfortable in saying that Manny is the better fighter at this point in his career.
However, this is reality check time. Because Manny is the better fighter does not make him the winner, not even competitive.
Pacquiao began his career at 106 and just this June he moved up to win a 135 pound belt with a vicious stoppage of David Diaz. Remarkably, he has thus far carried his power all the way, proving speed kills. But can he take it up yet two more divisions, to 147?
Oscar has won titles at every stop from 135 to 160 and he is by far the naturally bigger man. He has a four inch height advantage at 5’ 10 ½” and a five inch reach advantage, 72” to 67”. This is why Oscar is the favorite, 2-1 at this point, relatively low odds for a man with so many physical advantages. After all Manny has to come up 12 pounds to face a De La Hoya whose biggest challenge is to drop three pounds from his last fight to reach 147.
So, in case anyone has any doubts of where I’m going with this –I’m expecting Oscar to definitively stop Manny before the end of round five. If Oscar loses this one or fails to starch Pacquiao early he should go into hiding. Take the 2-1– it’s a lock.
Remember that one of the first laws of the boxing gods is “a good big man will always beat a good little man.”
I’ll betcha HBO is familiar with the concept. The HBO website had a picture of the two men, cleverly placing Oscar in the background. Now you have to know that HBO has a strategy here, right? Normally they would have the star front and center. (“No one puts Baby in the corner.”)
The answer is that it makes Manny appear to be the same height and it highlights his more impressive upper body physique. If you didn’t know better you’d think that Oscar was the underdog. Actually, I was told that Manny stood on a chair for the shot to look as big as De La Hoya.
Despite my misgivings on a professional basis, I’ve come to accept the fight for what it is — an event, a happening. Oscar is a human cash register and he’s going to make money for everyone, so you can’t blame Manny for cashing in with this opportunity, just one week from his 30th birthday. Manny is an international star and he deserves the purse.
Another concern was Pacquiao’s future. It won’t be easy to get back to 135 and he probably won’t. But if he so chooses he can compete at 140 and be considerably wealthier.
Overall it’s about entertainment and I’m all for that. Hopefully then we’ll keep some of the crossover fans that are drawn to the fight mainly because they recognize the names. If it’s exciting it can happen. De La Hoya-Mayweather Jr. was a failure in this regard. Hopefully the participants will rise to the occasion this time.
These mega-fights have become examples of the development of class struggles within boxing society. The fights sell out in 20 seconds yet within minutes you can buy all you want from a ticket broker. The fighters, the promoters, and the casinos get their share of tickets and pass them on according to their business needs. The promoters have developed a list of sponsors as long as your arm and they all receive their courtesy supply.
But if you try as a customer, without connections, to purchase reasonably good tickets on Ticketmaster, you have no shot, none whatsoever. The mega event has become a rich man’s game.
There’s even class distinction in the media. Newspapers give boxing little coverage these days and with the exception of a couple of New York papers and some local papers, editors are no longer spending the money to send a writer to cover fights.
Consequently, when they do you get whoever is most willing and able. It probably won’t be a boxing writer because few newspapers have them on staff anymore. Those who were there were reassigned to other duties. If you’re lucky the fight might be covered by a sports reporter of some sort at least. But you could get the guy in charge of obituaries. Some of these folks are clueless about boxing.
Meanwhile, credentials continue to be given to everyone with their hand out. Since everyone cannot be accommodated at ringside the excess internet writers– the guys and gals who write about the sport all year– are sent to the auxiliary media section. This means that it’s so far up that they give you oxygen halfway up.
It’s an insult to those of us who make the trip on our own dime, pay for our own food and accommodations and actually know the difference between a left hook and a fish hook. Further, there are non media types such as personal friends and so called “hot chicks” who sit in the media section, which is aggravating and disruptive.
Here’s my suggestion– okay I understand the business side to it. The international newspapers have to be accommodated. But geez, couldn’t they give out one credential per organization until ringside is full and then simply cut it off?
I’d rather be rejected in advance than travel 2500 miles to wear a different colored credential like something out of “The Scarlet Letter.” This is like wearing a sign that says, “Hey, I’m a second class citizen.”