Weighty problem for Pacquiao.
Long in the works and hyped for most of this year, the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao fight finally happens Saturday in Las Vegas, airing at 7 p.m. on HBO pay-per-view.
And one thing is clear: The boxing world has learned its lesson. Pacquiao, who many consider the world’s best fighter pound for pound, will take on the older, some say fading, De La Hoya. But Pacquiao is a heavy underdog. Why?
Remember back a few months to the 43-year-old Bernard Hopkins’ pounding of Kelly Pavlik, a 26-year-old thought to be the better fighter? Problem was, Pavlik was fighting up a weight class. And he paid for it.
“They say Oscar is old, washed out, but they have already forgotten what happened in my fight against Kelly Pavlik,” Hopkins told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Thursday.
Pacquiao, 29, moved up two classes to face the bigger De La Hoya, 35. Trouble awaits.
