LAS VEGAS — For Manny Pacquiao, there was a call from his president and the gratitude of a country that has something to celebrate.
For Oscar De La Hoya, there was a trip to the hospital and the grim reality that all fighters must eventually face.
One fighter is on the verge of becoming boxing’s next superstar.
The other will have to be content with the fact that his bank account is fat even if his reputation is permanently soiled.
Pacquiao likely will go on to big fights and even bigger money still to come. Assuming he has any brain cells left after the beating he took Saturday, De La Hoya will go on as a businessman and forget thoughts of returning to the ring.
“His close friends and family should tell him it’s over,” trainer Freddie Roach said. “I don’t want him to end up with some disease like Parkinson’s. He’s very clear minded right now, but that could change.”
Fighters seldom listen to such talk. They always think they have one fight left in them. Unfortunately, those final fights can be costly to their health, as Roach knows only too well.
Roach trained De La Hoya for his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr., where he saw for the first time that De La Hoya couldn’t throw punches when he spotted an opening. In the opposite corner this time, he watched his fighter give De La Hoya such a beating that he quit after eight rounds of getting punched in the face.
More significantly, Roach has Parkinson’s himself.
It’s likely he got it from being punched in the head way too many times. He, too, was told to quit but fought five more times after that and took a beating in four of those fights.
“I hope Oscar has enough sense to call it a day,” he said.
