JaypeeOnline

The long wait is over. Filipinos and boxing aficionados all over the world have been eagerly awaiting this fight since it was first announced early this year. Tomorrow, December 6th the “Dream Match” will become a reality as Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao will face the “Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya in a 12-round match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada in what could be an epic battle and become one of boxing’s classic fights.

Inspite of all the buzz and excitement over this fight, there are mixed emotions and opinions about it. Critics are saying that this is all about the money and that this fight is a fraud, a mismatch because of the size discrepancy between Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. The “Dream Match” as this fight is called is more like a “David versus Goliath” match to others because Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KO) has a 4-inch height and 6-inch weight advantage over Pacquaio (47-3-2, 35 KO).

One Filipino politician even tried to have Pacquiao’s boxing license suspended just to keep him from being in this fight. He believes that De La Hoya’s height and weight/strength would be too much for Manny to handle. On the other side, some believe that Pacquiao’s hand speed and strength combined with his strong will and determination would be able to neutralize De La Hoya’s size and power.

IMHO, this fight is too close too call even for boxing experts because this is the first time for both boxers to fight in this weight class. Its true that Oscar De La Hoya would have the height and reach “advantage” and because he has fought on heavier weight classes but inspite of that we can’t rule out or underestimate Pacquiao based on his previous fight against David Diaz who he demolished and TKO’d in the 9th round. Pacquiao on the other hand, has the age and speed advantage over De La Hoya.

According to the latest polls and surveys, Oscar De La Hoya is favored to win this match while Manny Pacquiao is the underdog. So its no surprise that the betting odds for the Pacquiao-De La Hoya match is 5:1 in favor of De La Hoya.

I’m no boxing expert, I’m just a regular boxing fan so I’m not gonna make any predictions. All I’m looking forward to, is a good, clean fight and I hope no one gets badly hurt. Both Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquaio trained hard and prepared well for this fight and both boxers have something to prove, so I think we can expect both fighters to give it their best performance. But of course, you all know who I’ll be rooting for right? All the best to you Manny, win or lose you’re still our hero and you still make us proud to be Filipinos! Mabuhay ka Manny!

In case you won’t be able to watch the fight live and would want to know the round by round results, I’ll be setting up a post for the Pacquiao versus De La Hoya Round by Round results. Make sure you bookmark it so you won’t forget or have a hard time looking for it come fight night.

Check out HBO articles for the Pacquiao-De La Hoya Dream Match:

• Weighty Issues
• Compu-Box Pre-Fight Analysis
• Chuck Johnson’s Fight Week: Thursday’s Training Day
• Bert Sugar’s Pre-Fight Breakdown

You might also wanna read this article written by someone I know back in the Philippines, Medeon Maraon’s article entitled A Closer Look at King David and Manny Pacquiao.

[images taken from HBO Boxing]