Money, Manny and Oscar De La Hoya

Popular boxing trainer Angelo Dundee predicted that Manny Pacquaio has no chance at all of winning against the much superior Oscar de la Hoya in their forthcoming boxing match to be staged at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 6m 2008. He said that dela Hoya has no problem with shorter and smaller boxers as he has fought and sparred with so many smaller boxers in the past.

Boxing fans from all over the world including a good number of Pacquiao fans from the Philippines, share Angelo Dundee's prediction. They believe that because of dela Hoya's overall physical superiority, he will emerge as the sure winner. Oscar dela Hoya, as statistics would show, has a marked advantage in height, weight and reach while Pacquaio is known for his fast hand and foot movements.

Although Pacquiao is relatively younger than dela Hoya, boxing experts say that it will not compensate for dela Hoya's built and other physical assets. Likewise dela Hoya is more experienced both as an amateur and as a professional boxer. He was a gold medalist in boxing representing the United States in the Olympic Games.

In the meantime, de la Hoya has locked himself up in his training camp at Big Bear Mountains in California. The place is cold, with temperature dropping to near freezing point. The training camp at Big Bear has an elevation of 8,000 feet and is about two hours by car from downtown Los Angeles.

The training camp has been practically off limits to visitors and even to media. This is how serious Oscar is in making sure that no one would know his strategy come fight night at the MGM Grand. Although his camp revealed that de la Hoya has taken in Victor Ortiz as his sparring partner, nothing much has been said about dela Hoya's strategy for this particular match. Ortiz is a left hander like Pacquiao and much younger at 21 with a 22-1-1 win loss draw record. On the other hand, the camp of Pacquiao led by the popular boxing trainer, Freddie Roach settled at the Wild Card Gym on Vine Street in Hollywood.

It seems that Pacquiao is more at home at the Wild Card Gym which is actually owned by Roach himself. He has been sparring with a number of bigger and heavier boxers. One of them welterweight McDaniels got hit by Pacquiao's powerful left in one of their sparring sessions the other day. McDaniels was badly hit forcing Pacquiao to rest and to see for himself how McDaniels condition was.

Although Pacquiao has the power and ability to beat Oscar dela Hoya with his speed and powerful left hand, many believe that it may not work for him this time simply because of dela Hoya's natural superior built. It is predictable that dela Hoya will find a way to counter Pacquiao's speed and his powerful left hook, capitalizing on his superior built to his advantage. A number of Pacquiao fans in the Philippines are concerned about the outcome of this much publicized boxing fight. They are one in saying that Pacquiao-dela Hoya fight is an obvious mismatch. They fear that dela Hoya will inflict too much damage to Pacquiao because of his superior natural built and Pacquaio cannot do anything about it no matter what he does.

In response to the call of some Pacquaio fans, the Chair of the Games and Amusement Board of the Philippines called for the cancellation of the boxing fight for the reason that it is an obvious mismatch. The promoters of the boxing event said that the fight can no longer be cancelled because the contract has already been signed.

On the business side, boxing aficionados are saying that the dela Hoya-Pacquiao match is being stage by its promoters, with only one common consideration; money, more than anything else.