The Latest on Oscar - Pacquiao

Richard Schaefer is spending a lot of time these days defending Oscar De La Hoya’s decision to go after a fight with the much smaller Manny Pacquiao. We spoke with Schaefer on Tuesday, and he gave us an update on the negotiations for the fight that would take place Dec. 6.

Schaefer, CEO of De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, said De La Hoya has in the past couple of days made two concessions. One of them is very thought-provoking. And it could take some of the heat off Schaefer and De La Hoya.

“Oscar agreed to go down to 147 and Oscar agreed to use eight-ounce gloves and those are two things Oscar hasn’t done in eight years,” said Schaefer, citing two of the three issues that needed to be resolved. De La Hoya last fought at the 147-pound welterweight limit against Arturo Gatti in March 2001, seven years and five months ago.

Schaefer said he has given the word of these allowances to Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum. That leaves one - the split of the money. This could very well be the biggest hurdle to clear, but talks have progressed from last week’s first sit-down between Schaefer and Arum.
The most significant complaint coming from yours truly has been that rather than dare to be great by taking on Antonio Margarito in his farewell fight, De La Hoya wants to go out by fighting Pacquiao. Pacquiao is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, but he is not even a big lightweight.

De La Hoya and Pacquiao are in reality three weight classes apart. Giving Pacquiao the benefit of the doubt that he is a true lightweight - he’s only fought once at that weight - De La Hoya is a junior middleweight. We’re talking 135 pounds to 154.

If De La Hoya had his druthers, he would rather not fight at anything lower than 150, the weight at which he fought and defeated Steve Forbes last May at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

“It’s one thing to make 150,” Schaefer said. “But to lose those three extra pounds - Oscar doesn’t have any body fat - where are those extra pounds going to come from?”

That De La Hoya, 35, gave in and agreed to go down to 147 pounds after all this time is impressive. It’s a strong indication the fight will be made. This would seem to even the playing field a bit if for no other reason than De La Hoya is going to have to starve himself and even dehydrate himself in order to make 147 pounds the day of the weigh-in. It won’t be easy for him to regain his full strength come fight time.

Of course, this type of thing can hazardous to one’s health. When a fighter goes through hell to make weight, he saps water from the brain. Doctors have told this reporter that water often does not fully replenish in 24 hours, making a fighter more succeptible to a brain injury.

Schaefer said he is aware that De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) draining himself to make 147 could be dicey.

“Bernard (Hopkins) told me it is more dangerous to move down than to move up,” Schaefer said. “It’s a dangerous thing. I don’t know if I like it or not.”

Hopkins, a partner in Golden Boy, recently signed to fight Kelly Pavlik on Oct. 18 in Atlantic City. Schaefer said Tuesday that Hopkins would have signed to fight Pavlik two months ago, but that Team Pavlik wanted the fight to be at 168.

Schaefer said that Hopkins, who moved up to the 175-pound light heavyweight division two years ago, did not want to fight at anything less than 170 because he didn’t think it would be safe for him to fight at anything less at this point in his career. The 43-year-old Hopkins had fought most of his career in the 160-pound middleweight division.

Schaefer said Hopkins told him that even those two pounds - 168 as opposed to 170 - would have made it more dangerous for him. The fight with Pavlik, the middleweight champion, was eventually made at 170.

All of this will be moot if the fight between De La Hoya and Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs) does not get made. But with two out of three sticking points out of the way, the table is set for what Schaefer believes will be a huge event - its detractors notwithstanding.

“I think you have the most popular fighter of this day in Oscar and the most popular Asian fighter as well as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter (in Pacquiao),” Schaefer said. “I can tell you one thing, Manny is going to come to fight.”

This situation is win-win for the 29-year-old Pacquiao. And though it seems like this is still more of a no-win situation for De La Hoya, him having to make 147 for the first time in nearly eight years would make it easier for naysayers to swallow.

That said, De La Hoya coming down to 147 to fight Pacquiao is not as risky as if he were going to do that against a legitimate welterweight such as Margarito or Paul Williams. That could be scary.

Then again, either of those aforementioned welterweight champions would gladly fight De La Hoya at 150 pounds or even 154. No doubt about it.