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Bell tolls as legend throws in towel
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(Las Vegas)
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MANNY Pacquiao dominated his bigger and more famous opponent from the opening bell in Las Vegas yesterday, giving Oscar De La Hoya such a beating he declined to come out of his corner after the eighth round.
The fight was so lopsided and De La Hoya looked so inept that it could spell the end for boxing's richest and most marketable star.
It was only the second time in De La Hoya's 16-year professional career that he was stopped in a fight, and it was made even more shocking because it came at the hands of a fighter who fought at just 58.5kg months earlier. At the age of 35, he seemed not only well beyond his prime, but unable to offer any answer to the punches that Pacquiao was landing almost at will.
De La Hoya's left eye was closed shut as he sat on his stool after the eighth round and the ring doctor, referee and his cornermen discussed his condition.
De La Hoya offered no complaints when his corner decided he had had enough, getting up from his stool and walking to the centre of the ring to congratulate Pacquiao.
Two of the three ringside judges scored all eight rounds for Pacquiao, while a third gave De La Hoya only the first round.
The fight was lopsided from the beginning, with Pacquiao landing punch after punch while De La Hoya chased after him, trying to catch him with a big punch.
Pacquiao was winning convincingly before the seventh round, when he was pounding De La Hoya against the ropes in his corner and catching him with huge shots that knocked him across the ring.
De La Hoya remained upright, but with one eye closed and his reflexes seemingly gone there was no chance he was going to land the big punches he needed to turn the fight around.
"He's just a great fighter," De La Hoya said. "I have nothing bad to say about him. He prepared like a true champion."
Pacquiao came up two weight classes to fight for his biggest purse, while De La Hoya dropped down to meet him at 66.8kg. Though De La Hoya towered over Pacquiao and had a big reach advantage, Pacquiao had no trouble getting inside what few jabs De La Hoya threw to land his shots.
"We knew we had him after the first round," Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach said. "He had no legs, he was hesitant and he was shot."
Roach trained De La Hoya in his last big fight a year ago and said De La Hoya simply couldn't throw punches when needed in that fight. That was magnified even more against Pacquiao, who not only was as elusive as Floyd Mayweather Jr but threw punches that kept De La Hoya off balance.
"Freddie, you're right," De La Hoya told the trainer after the fight. "I just don't have it any more."
If De La Hoya's career is over, it will be the end of a remarkable story that began when he won the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona in 1992 and went on to become the biggest box office attraction in the sport.
But there were whispers long before the fight that he had nothing left.
De La Hoya not only dropped down to fight for the first time at 66.8kg in seven years, but actually came into the ring unofficially weighing less than Pacquiao.
The fight was so lopsided and De La Hoya looked so inept that it could spell the end for boxing's richest and most marketable star.
It was only the second time in De La Hoya's 16-year professional career that he was stopped in a fight, and it was made even more shocking because it came at the hands of a fighter who fought at just 58.5kg months earlier. At the age of 35, he seemed not only well beyond his prime, but unable to offer any answer to the punches that Pacquiao was landing almost at will.
De La Hoya's left eye was closed shut as he sat on his stool after the eighth round and the ring doctor, referee and his cornermen discussed his condition.
De La Hoya offered no complaints when his corner decided he had had enough, getting up from his stool and walking to the centre of the ring to congratulate Pacquiao.
Two of the three ringside judges scored all eight rounds for Pacquiao, while a third gave De La Hoya only the first round.
The fight was lopsided from the beginning, with Pacquiao landing punch after punch while De La Hoya chased after him, trying to catch him with a big punch.
Pacquiao was winning convincingly before the seventh round, when he was pounding De La Hoya against the ropes in his corner and catching him with huge shots that knocked him across the ring.
De La Hoya remained upright, but with one eye closed and his reflexes seemingly gone there was no chance he was going to land the big punches he needed to turn the fight around.
"He's just a great fighter," De La Hoya said. "I have nothing bad to say about him. He prepared like a true champion."
Pacquiao came up two weight classes to fight for his biggest purse, while De La Hoya dropped down to meet him at 66.8kg. Though De La Hoya towered over Pacquiao and had a big reach advantage, Pacquiao had no trouble getting inside what few jabs De La Hoya threw to land his shots.
"We knew we had him after the first round," Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach said. "He had no legs, he was hesitant and he was shot."
Roach trained De La Hoya in his last big fight a year ago and said De La Hoya simply couldn't throw punches when needed in that fight. That was magnified even more against Pacquiao, who not only was as elusive as Floyd Mayweather Jr but threw punches that kept De La Hoya off balance.
"Freddie, you're right," De La Hoya told the trainer after the fight. "I just don't have it any more."
If De La Hoya's career is over, it will be the end of a remarkable story that began when he won the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona in 1992 and went on to become the biggest box office attraction in the sport.
But there were whispers long before the fight that he had nothing left.
De La Hoya not only dropped down to fight for the first time at 66.8kg in seven years, but actually came into the ring unofficially weighing less than Pacquiao.