Manny Pacquiao| The Secret behind a win over De la Hoya

De la Hoya vs Pacquiao – the story so far…

My 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 would win the mismatch he has signed up for on December 6th.

Can Pacquiao even win?

A better fight for Pacquiao would have been Ricky Hatton at 140, although I expect the Hitman would be favourite to overwhelm the Pacman in an entertaining fight, It is easier to envisage how Pacquiao could beat Hatton. To unravel the secret of how Manny Pacquiao beats Oscar De la Hoya will need closer analysis.

So I did a little research…Didn’t much help… so I sat back for a couple weeks and asked myself who is Manny Pacquiao? Why is Pacquiao considered P4P number one? How can Pacquiao beat a man who has lived with the speed of a peak Shane Moseley, the Skills and boxing brain of Pernell Whitaker and the raw Power of Felix Trinidad, despite all the obvious gaps in his boxing armoury?

Who is Manny Pacquiao

Then it dawned on me at 19 years old Manny Pacquiao travelled to Thailand face the local favourite and established reigning champion Chatchai Sasakul in what was argueably his prime. Sasakul had 23 stoppages in 33 fights and having already  avenged his only defeat. A young Pacquiao not only won the title but Stopped the Thai native on his home turf for the first time in his carreer and only time until this year when a 38 year old Sasakul was bludgeoned by the talented Christian Mijares in three rounds.

Manny Pacquiao – A Child Prodigy

Then I looked back at the stats and saw that While still a boy in boxing terms Manny Pacquiao had stacked up a KO record as a flyweight comparable to a young Mike Tyson, Prime George Foreman and an old Sonny Liston. At that time however like many a boxing fans I failed to notice the devestating Filipino fighter making a noise in the lighter boxing weight classes.  Especailly as their was a very  talented heavyweight division at that time. Honestly.

Pacquiao knows what it is like to lose

And then like Liston, Foreman and Liston Pacquiao suffered a suprising stoppage loss … The second defeat of Pacquiao career put an end to Pacquiao’s first KO run, and signalled another move up in weight where the Pacman embarked upon another Knock Out littered path of destruction. This saw Pacquiao become (argueably) the number one super bantamweight in the world not that I considered him the best, I remember being enamoured with the skills and power of a Domincan Super-Bantanweight Joan Guzman, who I believed would be too skillful for the one handed gunslinger from the Philipines… shame Guzman doesn’t live the life his failure to make weight for high profile industry fights with: Alex Arthur, Scott Harrison and most recently (and shamefully) Nate Cambell and bad hands which have negated his ability to bring the power he showed as a super bantamweight up into higher weight classes have dimmed this talented fighters star significantly…. But this blog is about Pacquiao vs De la Hoya so I will continue…

Pacquiao wins his first mismatch

Pacquiao’s performances as Super-Bantamweight had officially given him a bit of industry buzz, outside his already strong hillipino based support. Pacquiao would expose himself to the general boxing fan and mainstream media in britual fashion when the Pacman beat up and stopped Marco Antonio Barrerea in one of the biggest shocks in boxing since… Vince Phillips flattened Kostya Tzyu.  Questions however remained over Marco Anotonio Barreras preparation prior to the fight and while the Pacquiao was now known by the vast majority of hardcore and casual boxing fans, debates relating to merits of his victory, and how good Pacquiao actually was still remained.

How Marquez helped Manny Pacquiao

The belts at four weights, the wins over Erik Morales, the destruction . David Diaz, all aided by Pacquiao’s fight(s) with master boxer and mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez. After dropping Juan Manuel Marquez 3 times in the first round Manny Pacquiao got the shock of his life. Instead of retreating into his shell as most fighters would (just think Paulie Malinaggi vs Ricky Hatton) he adjusted his gameplan and gave Manny Pacquiao a boxing lesson. After this fight it became clear to everyone that Marquez had given every smart boxer the key to beating  Manny Pacqiao and if Manny was going to continue his dominance he would have to improve. A loss to Erik Morales, where Pacquiao was not able to fight his fight due to promoter distractions and injury (Pacquiao sustained a bad cut over his right eye in the fifth round from a clash of heads) had many questioning whether or not Pacquiao could make the needed adjustment. However Pacquiao proved he had learnt, developing the additional threat of a right hand which helped him gain retribution over Erik Morales twice. Pacquiao was still outboxed by Marquez during their second contest  where he won a close but disputed decision with just the one knock down this time. If Pacquiao puts the lessons learned against Marquez into practice against De la Hoya, like David Diaz the Golden Boy will see a much sharper defense and a smarter attack.

So…

The Tale of the Tape: Manny Pacquiao

Age    29
Stance    southpaw
Height    5′ 6½″
Reach    67“
Record: W 47 (KO 35)  L 3(KO 2) D2
Rounds Boxed 283 : KO% 67.31

What this does not tell us is that Manny Pacquiao has not been stopped sinced he was a teenager and that like some of his former rivals Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera he started his proffessional career as a teenager at just 16. As Antonio Margarito showed us in his fight with Miguel Cotto, fighters who take this route to the top get a solid schooling in boxing game.

Pacquiao’s confidence

Juan Manuel Marquez aside since the Pacquiao’s 11 round beatdown of Marco Antonio Barrera, everything seems to be going Pacauiao’s way.  If winning is 90% mental 10% physical the size disadvantage Pacauiao has in this match may not be an issue. Oscar De La Hoya has not had a big win since he beat Fernando Vargas in 2002. The plot thickesn when you consider Pacquiao’s trainer Freddier Roach is talking up a Pacquiao win after working with De la Hoya for his last major fight with Floyd Mayweather Jnr, you would have to assume De la Hoya gave his all in preparations for that fight even if it wasn’t enough. On December 6th the Golden Boy has to be hoping that 10% physical edge he has on the Pacman will be.

Manny Pacquiao Speed and Conditioning

One thing we can gurantee is that Manny Pacquiao will be in tip-top shape for this fight and will enjoy a significant advantage in hand and foot-speed over the Golden boy, His work rate and ability to fire quick hard accurate combinations will be somthing which De la Hoya hasn’t dealt with since he fought Sugar Shane Moseley for the first in ‘00. I know what your thinking Floyd Mayweather Jnr isn’t exactly slow right? And De la Hoya did ok against his speed? Well yes and no Mayweather is fast but he doesn’t fight with the pace and intensity of of Manny Pacquiao. And while De la Hoya did ok with Mayweather’s speed one quick right hand off the ropes did have the Golden boy knee’s buckling. Remember most fighters are knocked out because they don’t see the punch coming and so aren’t prepared to take it. If you don’t believe me just look at Manny Pacquiao’s last fight against David Diaz. I remember Diaz telling his corner he was bothered by Pacquiao’s speed not power until he didn’t see one coming and was put to sleep.

Manny Pacquiao Boxing brain

Many people consider this a weakness for the Pacman and I am not about to try and tell you any different, Manny Pacquiao is not the second coming of Bernard Hopkins. Pacquiao does have Freddie Roach who was tutored under the all time great trainer Eddie Futch who trained four of the five men who beat Muhammed Ali and a number of Hall of Fame fighers during what was a remarkable career. This grounding makes Pacquiao 2x trainer of the year Freddie Roach an even more imposing threat as a boxing tactician. And unlike the quality trainers and advisors Oscar De la Hoya has brought in Roach has been working with Pacquiao for years. This is a distinct advantage for Pacquiao as Roach is not wasteing time building a relationship with Pacquiao, from day one he is working on Pacquiao’s strengths and weaknesses so on December 6th the Pacman can deliver the fight strategy. Talk of Bernstein teaching De la Hoya how to get more power from his already impressive left hook is good but pointless at this stage of his career Oscar De la Hoya’s is an old dog who will forget his new trick if under pressure. I have no doubt Manny Pacquiao will be the better prepared come fight night.

So how does Pacquiao win?

Any Pacquiao victory over De la Hoya will be built upon speed. Expect Pacquiao to be more cautious in the early rounds as he was agaisnt Marco Antonio Barrera. Don’t be suprised to see Pacquiao utilise some effective defensive skills during the fight as he will be more aware of the price he may pay if caught by the bigger man. If Manny can sustain this patient approach, without giving away to many rounds, you will then see the Pacman pick up the pace from around round four or five and pepper the Golden Boy in a style we have all become accustomed. A mixture of body shots and quick sharp combinations will be used to break Oscar De la Hoya down and while I don’t expect Oscar to be knocked out IF Pacquiao and Roach can pull the plan off an unlikely stoppage over an ageing Oscar De la Hoya is possible.

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