Oscar training hardest for Pacman bout

Oscar De La Hoya knows he will be facing the “best Manny Pacquiao ever.”

The scary thing is the 10-time world champion is doing something about it.

The Golden Boy’s boyhood buddy, GBP vice president Eric Gomez said his 35-year-old boss already knows of the plan to invade into his aging midsection, before bringing the juggernaut to his movie star face.

“Oscar’s preparing to fight the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He’s getting ready with everything in mind, I mean, he’s [saying the Pacquiao is] gonna hit me in the body, my face, anywhere so I gotta prepare for that, so stuff like that doesn’t bother him. He’s a veteran,” Gomez told dzSR sports radio recently.

There won’t be any secret strategies to be kept anymore from boxing’s biggest marquee names, he said, and that everything will come to a head only when Pacquiao and De La Hoya finally meet on Dec. 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

“At the end of the day nobody knows what’s going to happen. They still have to fight each other. These guys, you can’t measure the size of their hearts. And that’s one thing that both fighters have,” added Gomez.

Gomez, who unlike GBP CEO Richard Schafer was cautious in making a prediction, acknowledged that Pacquiao is one of the best southpaws in the history of the game.

“Obviously Oscar believes he is fighting one of the best southpaws in the history of boxing in Manny Pacquiao. You can put Manny’s name up there with Marvin Hagler,” Gomez said.

“You’re dealing with an Oscar now that’s not in his prime. He’s still good and he can still compete at a high level but he’s not in his prime anymore.”

While Gomez said De La Hoya has been studying all of Pacquiao’s fight tapes, the Filipino four-division champ may be headed for the wrong direction by studying the Golden Boy’s fights against fellow southpaws Pernell Whitaker and Hector Camacho.

“Those guys have very, very different styles. Those guys are boxers and weren’t as aggressive as Manny is. Manny’s much, much more aggressive,” Gomez said. Both Whitaker and Camacho lost to De La Hoya.

Meanwhile, two former middleweight champions Iran Barkley and Vito Antuofermo predicted a lopsided match in favor of De La Hoya.

“That is a fight that is going to favor De La Hoya. Pacquiao is coming up to be a big man but I have to go with De La Hoya,” Barkley told newsday.com. “I think Oscar will win. But it could be an interesting fight. Manny is nothing to sleep on.”
(By Marc Anthony Reyes; Philippine Daily Inquirer)