Who is Oscar De la Hoya?
Who doesn’t know who Oscar De La hoya is? A modern day boxing legend, De la Hoya’s career has seen him transform from the popular “Golden Boy of boxing” into one of the genuine cash cows in proffessional sports today. Everyone wants to fight Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton aside… who felt it was better to honour his prior arrangement with Pauli Malinaggi instead of filling in for Money Mayweather this September. And if you don’t want to fight De la Hoya maybe you want to be promoted by him? Golden Boy Promotions Oscars company houses a number of existing stars and upcoming prospects and will allow Oscar to maintain his cash cow status long after he finishes fighting. Now lets take a look at why De la Hoya has been so successful…
The tale of the Tape: Oscar De la Hoya
Age: 35
stance: orthodox
height: 5′ 10½″
reach: 73“
Recored: W 39 (KO 30) L5 (KO 1)
So what do De la Hoya’s basic stats tell us..?
Well although fighting from an orthodox stance (fighters who lead with their weaker left hand for those not up on their boxing 101) De la Hoya is reported to be left handed (south paws/left handers lead with their right hand – for example Manny Pacquiao). This has proven significant during De la Hoya’s career as he has been able to forge a formidable left jab/left hook combination that saw him win gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and beat atleast 10 Hall of Fame fighters during his 16 year career as a proffessional.
De la Hoya Physical advantage
This for me is how and why Oscar De la Hoya wins this fight. If The Golden Boy turns up on December 6th anything close to the De la Hoya who has performed on big nights in Vegas against Fernando Vargas, Shane Mosely and Flloyd Mayweather he will be too much for Manny Pacquiao and for me will brutally stop the Philipino icon. That being said nothing is a given in Boxing and if the Oscar De la Hoya who turned up against Steve Forbes arrives in vegas that night he could well suffer an embarrassing defeat against the Pacman.
De la Hoya’s Power
Now don’t get me wrong, while his power is respected De la Hoya has never been regarded as a fearsome puncher like one time rival Tito Trinidad, Mike Tyson or even Manny Pacquiao. He does however possess a 68% KO ratio and has consistently stopped fighters in four different weight divisions making his KO record even more impressive and his reputation as a puncher a little understated. Maybe those who question Manny Pacquiao’s ability bring his power up with him to welterweight should consider this? Or maybe not. At almost 5ft11 De la Hoya’s frame is significantly bigger than the Pacmans and aided his successful move from Super Featherweight to Middleweight. As De la Hoya 90% stoppage ratio suggests The Golden Boy was huge when fighting at both Super Featherweigt and Lightweight and Pacquiao how has been stopped and hurt by fighters nowhere near as big or strong as De la Hoya will do well not to get knocked out in this one.
Oscar De la Hoya’s chin
De la Hoya has a solid chin, Moseley, Mayorga, Vargas, Quartey, Trinidad… all tested De la Hoya’s chin to differing degrees without fight ending success tand while the fast and accurate Mayweather was able to dip Oscars knees I can see nothing to suggest that Manny will be able to stop the Golden Boy.
De la Hoya has been stopped
The only time De la Hoya has been stopped was by a body shot to the liver while fighting at middleweight. Like De la Hoya’s next opponent Manny Pacquiao he was facing a fighter who was bigger stronger and smarter in Bernard Hopkins and the event ended up being a mismatch.
Pacquiao will attack De la Hoya to the body
The body though is an area De la Hoya has shown vunerability in other fights however especially against fast fisted rival, friend and business partner Shane Moseley. This may not have gone unnoticed by Freddie Roach who has had the benefit of training De la Hoya for his contest agaisnt another speedster in Flloyd Mayweather. Maybe this is too obvious a tatic though with the butcher the baker and the candlestick maker hearing seeing press reports stating Pacquiao was planning to work the body. Roach a world reknown trainer would not give up his fighters plan A so easily.
How does Oscar De la Hoya lose against Paquiao?
Well what can I say at 35 The Golden Boy is getting on in age. By taking on Pacquiao this December De la Hoya will be embarking on his busiest year as a fighter since 2004 AND! Will be attempting to make the 147lbs welterweight limit for the first time in over seven years! Roy Jones Jnr will testify how making weight can take somthing away from even the best fighters and when your 35 you may never get it back.
It happens to us all Hopkins showed us he didn’t have the legs against Calzaghe, last week Antonio Tarver showed he didn’t have anything to stop Chad Dawson, we all get old and there comes a time where no matter how hard we try we can’t do the things we use to. Now here comes the exception to the rule: at 36 Joe Calzaghe is enjoying a particularly fruitful indian summer, Vitali Klitscho jumped out of his hospital bed at 37 to beat up on a 28 year Samuel Peter, Shane Mosely… beat another old man (just)… Anyway, these occurances although more common in boxing today and sport in general (Just think Brett Farve and Greg Norman) is still quote novel. And with De la Hoya known to tire even when he was younger, fitter, faster, stronger. This makes De la Hoya’s decision to fight at 147 the one risk which keeps this fight interenting for me even if he has fought his last two fights at 150lbs.
De la Hoya’s conditioning
I am sure Manny Pacquiao will look to use his speed against De la Hoya and set a ferocious pace from the start. At 35 Oscar will not be able to effectively fight at that pace for 12 rounds. If De la Hoya can’t slow the Pacman down or stop him early, expect a repeat of Manny Pacquioa’s victory over David Diaz with a slow plodding Golden Boy beind picked off and battered in the second half of the fight while he drops to a unanimous decision defeat.
Oscar De la Hoya’s Mental Strength
Now this is the reason I respect Oscar De la Hoya: He has been in the spotlight from the start of his proffessional career. In fact unlike many US Olympic boxers who have followed him, De la Hoya has never left the spotrligt since he struck gold as a teenager in Barcelona. In those respects De la Hoya is on a par with Lebron James, Diego Maradonna, Tiger Woods and all those other childhood prodigies who have delt with the pressure of expectation and achieved greatness (should Lebron James be on this list?). Oscar De la Hoya’s ability to overcome pressure from fans, the critics and his opponents, who don’t just want to beat him but make a name for themselves makes De la Hoya’s achievement even more impressive as he had to do it from day 1 as a pro.
So what does De la Hoya have to prove?
Some may question De la Hoya’s desire and why not. The Golden boy already has: a career record which reads as a who’s who of boxing, hundreds of millions in the bank and a bright business future ahead of him what more can he want to achive? Well it is clear to me, the man who has it all wants to go out, not just another winner but as P4P king. Victory over Manny Pacquiao who is generally considered pound for pound the best boxer in the world right now (although not by me) would in Oscar’s mind atleast legitimise his position as the best boxer on the planet.
My next post will look at how Manny Pacquiao wins and losses this fight and I will also be giving a short analysis on the fight of the weekend Pavlik vs Hopkins.
Congratulations to Ian Daper Naper who won the European Title last night, great performance.
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Tags: Boxing, de la hoya, De la Hoya fans, De la hoya informat, De la Hoya superfight, De la Hoya's career, Manny Pacquiao, oscar de hoya fight, Oscar De La Hoya, Oscar de la Hoya Strengths, Oscar De La Hoya vs Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De la Hoya weaknesses, Oscar vs Pacquiao, Pacman, Pacquiao fans, Paquiao information, Paquiao super fight, the dream fight, The Golden Boy
November 24, 2008 at 6:41 pm |
Thanks for all the info, man! Really helps cut through all the crap and gossip about the fight…gonna be one for the ages. I’ve got my money on Manny myself.
November 24, 2008 at 9:24 pm |
Thanks for the feedback, alot of people think this is going to be a cakewalk for De la Hoya but I think Manny Pacquiao may have a few suprises for the Golden boy in this fight. I have another blog on Pacman coming soon.
You can get 9/4 for a Pacquiao win…worth a bet i think.
November 26, 2008 at 12:05 am |
[...] last post looked at how and why Oscar De la Hoya beats Manny Pacquiao, where I more or less stated the obvious and outlined why it was extremely unlikely Manny Paquiao [...]
November 26, 2008 at 12:14 am |
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