A lot of people in the industry loved De La Hoya in this fight, people I really respect: matchmakers, agents etc., experienced professionals. The biggest shock, though, is that De La Hoya gave Manny less of a fight than just about anyone in recent memory. Even Erik Morales landed some shots, as I recall, before going out in the third.
Manny players are gloating today (sorry, no other word for it, not many gracious winners out there) and, yes, winning is a very nice feeling, but I think very few of the winners would tell you, hand on heart, that they thought Pacquiao would smack De La Hoya around like a sparring partner.
The fact that some smart people liked Pacquiao (it wasn't Oscar all the way by any means among sharp guys) showed that this wasn't a formality for DLH. I do think there was overconfidence in some of the Oscar plays that got made but, don't get me wrong, I liked Oscar in the fight and I thought that when the odds got to -170 or so that he was good value -- but then, I thought he would be a strong 152, 154 pounds on fight night, and ready to fight. I got that wrong on both counts.
I didn't post a pick here but on my website I had Pacquiao fighting a tremendous fight but getting stopped in 10. As I mentioned in my post-fight wrap today, at least I got the "putting up a tremendous fight" part right!
A very experienced source told me today he believes that De La Hoya was brought down to weight far too early. He said that in this situation the fighter's stomach shrinks and it is not so easy to put fluids and food back into the system because it feels uncomfortable to attempt to do so. This makes some sense to me and would explain why De La Hoya put on only two pounds from the weigh-in to the night of the fight.
Someone else, also very experienced, who had some first-hand knowledge of what was going on at Big Bear, told me that Oscar flat out left his fight in the gym, information I got too late to be of any use.
Kudos to all those who were on the winning side, and look, maybe Manny could have beaten Oscar on the best day that Oscar ever had, but let's be frank, De La Hoya had nothing on Saturday night, and what's more I believe he KNEW he had nothing even before he entered the ring.
Reading between the lines, as Kramden did, can be done, but I didn't crack this particular code.
This was like Fernando Vargas coming into the ring a dead man walking for the rematch with Shane Mosley. Not many would have expected Vargas to be absolutely and utterly unable to compete that night, and I am pretty sure that not even Kramden read between the lines on that one. I'm right on this, aren't I, Kramden?
The thing is, in boxing there is a lot of information but also disinformation floating around, and things are not always what they seem. I think why the Oscar backers are so disappointed is because they felt that their guy didn't at least give them a run for their money. Well, OK, he didn't, but, frankly, I just don't think that De La Hoya had it in him physically to give ANYTHING. He had the look of a man who was thinking: "I'm in it now and I've got to get through it," rather than one who is thinking: "OK, I'm ready to go, let's get to it." Big difference.
