We look back at one of Manny Pacquiao’s greatest victories.
This website was in its infancy when this fight happened and it was one of the first big fights we covered. We had quite the panel of boxing writers and hardcore fans who gave us their predictions for the fight.
George Kimball, Bill Dwyre, Tim Kawakami, Duan, and Cactus Jim all got the fight right in choosing Pacquiao. Folks like myself, Scott Christ, and Jake Emen had De La Hoya.
I thought Kimball’s blurb for the fight was funny.
Although the rule of thumb says the good big man should beat the good little man I’m not sure it applies when they’re meeting on a middle ground, and I think Pacquiao will have smoother ride going up than Oscar will coming down. Of course, having said that I should point out that if I’d bet against Oscar every time I picked against him I’d have been broke a long time ago.
Many were worried that De La Hoya’s size would be too much for Pacquiao, but also thought Pacquiao’s speed and activity could be the difference in the fight. But not many people thought Pacquiao would be able to hurt De La Hoya like he did.
Winning the fight in the manner that he did (stopping De La Hoya so early) launched Pacquiao into the next stratosphere of boxing stars. He also beat him much easier than Floyd Mayweather did.
