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IF ever
Manny Pacquiao is bent on challenging
Oscar de la Hoya this year, the Filipino sensation
himself should do the talking and provoke the sport’s
current poster boy to a duel.
A source from the Golden Boy Promotions
camp told the BusinessMirror that although de la Hoya is
open to a bout with Pacquiao, the celebrated American is
not about to instigate the intriguing match.
“Oscar will be in an awkward position if he himself will
challenge Pacquiao. Oscar is the bigger man, physically,
so it will be like an adult bullying a young boy,” said
the source.
Both camps seemed to have agreed that a
fight, once thought to be a video-game fantasy, could be
made into reality.
Last weekend Pacquiao’s American
promoter Bob Arum revealed on the daily Philippine radio
show Sports Chat that he had initial talks with Golden
Boy about the possibility of staging a de la Hoya-Pacquiao
brawl in December.
Arum revealed he had discussed the fight
with Golden Boy people and that de la Hoya is looking at
four names to choose from for his farewell fight. They
are Floyd Mayweather Jr., Felix Tito Trinidad, Miguel
Cotto and Manny Pacquiao.
Arum said Mayweather, because of his
recent retirement, and Trinidad, because of his heavier
weight, are so far out of the picture.
“That leaves two fighters for Oscar to
fight on December 6—Miguel Cotto, who is fighting next
week against Antonio Margarito, and Manny Pacquiao,”
said Arum “Let’s be very practical about it. At this
particular point, Oscar de la Hoya has one more fight
left in his illustrious career and that’s December the
6th.”
Arum said he will discuss everything
with Pacquiao as soon as the Filipino four-division
world champion arrives in Las Vegas this weekend to
watch the Cotto-Margarito fight.
“The decision that has to be made by
Manny Pacquiao are, No. 1, if Oscar decides he would
like to fight, whether or not Manny feels that is a
winnable fight because Oscar is bigger, and [secondly],
whether or not the financial remunerations are
appropriate,” said Arum.
“Until I sit with Manny and find out
Manny’s financial demands and find out what percentage
the revenue we can get from a de la Hoya-Pacquiao fight,
everything is really premature. The point is that we are
not discarding our other options as this whole process
goes on.”
Arum agrees with Pacquiao trainer
Freddie Roach that the fight must be done in the
welterweight limit of 147 lb. The well-known promoter
added weight will not be an issue for de la Hoya, his
one-time prized fighter.
“I don’t think that would be a problem,
as far as Oscar coming down to 147. That is based on my
preliminary discussions, that won’t be a problem. In
other words, if he fought Cotto, if he fought Pacquiao,
we would do it at welterweight,” added Arum.
Arum also dismissed reports of a rift
between him and de la Hoya.
“That is not true, Oscar is a
businessman, there is no truth to as far as making the
fight or not making the fight. If it makes sense in
making the fight, if it can be done on good economic
terms that won’t stop Oscar at all. Trust me,” said
Arum, “when the contracts are drawn up for the fight, if
you are a professional, you lose that animosity and
maximize the revenue with the promotions.”
In the same show on Thursday morning,
Roach revealed his eagerness of seeing his prized ward
go up against de la Hoya.
“When I
trained Oscar, he was just having trouble pulling the
trigger and he’s a little bit slow. If Stevie Forbes can
hit him as easily as he did, I know Pacquiao will knock
him out,“ said Roach.
Roach
said he’s been asking around and learned that De la Hoya
can fight at 147 lbs if a real worthy opponent is
available at that weight.
“I want
Manny to weigh 140 lbs and then at fight time he’ll be
at 145, he’ll have his power and speed. I just don’t see
Oscar handling Manny at this point of their careers,“
revealed Roach “Manny told me he’d love to fight Oscar
and Oscar has made it public he’d love to fight Manny
and I think it’s a big, big fight.” |
