Inside the Ropes 11.19.08: Does Manny Pacquiao Have a Chance?

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 11.19.2008

Trash talking, last chances and retirement talk – seems like there’s plenty of that going around these days.



Yesterday on my blog and on our 3 More Rounds page, I raised the question: Does Manny Pacquiao Have a Chance? I'm sure you know what I'm referring to, otherwise you probably got here on accident but I digress; Manny Pacquiao is the obvious underdog in his upcoming matchup with Oscar De La Hoya but just how big of an underdog should he be? Manny is currently heavier than Oscar, trumping the whole weight issue though Oscar still possesses the height , reach and power advantages (speed is likely Manny's trump card). As the old adage goes, a good big man always beats a good little man, it's safe to say the odds are in Oscar's favor. But as I watched De La Hoya/Pacquiao 24/7 on HBO this past Sunday, some things started to swirl in my mind. First, Oscar, as was reported by our own Raymundo Dioses in his visit to Big Bear, was seen sporting a shiner, courtesy of his sparring sessions. There was that whole talk by Freddie Roach about Oscar getting "beat up" by Victor Ortiz who was suspiciously let go recently, as well as Roach's comments this week about Oscar having trouble with 108-pound champ Ivan Calderon when they sparred earlier this year. You can chalk that up to Roach hyping up the fight and his own fighter but still, there's some smoke to that fire. My other observation was in seeing how healthy Manny looks. Given the benefit of not having to shed an extra twelve pounds before a fight, Manny seems to be looking very comfortable at his weight which is said to be at 151 pounds right now.

Now this isn't to say that I'm suddenly picking Manny to win the fight. I'm not…for the moment at least. I still like Oscar's advantages including a sturdier chin, a hell of a jab and overall presence in the ring but let's just say it's food for thought.

Trash Talking - Is it just me or has there been a ton of high profile trash talking as of late? The most notable stuff at the moment is the aforementioned Freddie Roach, possibly looking to get under De La Hoya's skin and also displaying a hint of bad blood with his former pupil. Roach has mentioned recently that he felt a little betrayed by his dismissal from Team De La Hoya, specifically from finding out about it from the media. Yeah, I'd probably be a little upset too. Still, seems a bit out of place coming from a guy who normally keeps himself out of the public eye during training. Then again you can't blame him for being super confident about Manny, I know I would be.

This week, Darchinyan also snapped back at Jorge Arce who is suddenly calling him out by saying that he'll make him his "human piñata". Ouch. Talk about no nonsense shots from the current flyweight champion. Doesn't appear as if anyone's trying to place nice these days, whether it's Joe Calzaghe blasting Bernard Hopkins, Paulie Malignaggi saying he's going to beat Ricky Hatton's ass or Shane Mosley telling Antonio Margarito that it's he who is pissing his pants in fear. Can't we all just get along guys? No? Ok, works for me.

Retirement Schmirement - We have more than a handful of fighters who either need to retire or have talked about retiring. Going into the Calzaghe-Jones fight, we talked about how it would likely be the final bout of both of their careers. Calzaghe wanted to retire undefeated while a win for Jones would be a great way to bow out. Well as we all know, Calzaghe won and won big. Jones looked completely shot from the 2nd round on and fought to survive the fight, albeit valiantly. Conventional wisdom would tell you that Calzaghe looked great enough that we wouldn't blame him if he continued while Jones looked so bad that we all want him to retire. Funny thing is that Jones has hinted he wants to continue while Calzaghe looks to retire, though he said this week that he'll wait until after Christmas to make his decision. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Exactly! Jones should do himself and his legacy a favor by calling it quits to a marvelous career while Calzaghe should probably dedicate one more fight to his fans in Cardiff.

Evander Holyfield is getting a title shot against Nicolai Valuev next month. I shudder to think about the beating he may receive by the much, much larger champ. Please Evander retire! We know you need the money but your health is more important.

Wouldn't it be funny if he actually won though?

A few months ago, we pleaded with Hopkins to walk into the sunset after a close decision loss to Joe Calzaghe. Now after systematically dismantling Kelly Pavlik, we'd all love to see him one more time. Us writers are an odd bunch, aren't we?


Some Miscellaneous Thoughts

- It was a pleasure and a surprise to meet and greet former world champion "Terrible" Terry Norris at the World Boxing Hall of Fame this past weekend (which I'll write about later this week). Norris was one of the more exciting fighters to watch in the early to mid 90's and carried a hell of a punch. Good to see him in high spirits but it saddens me to hear his speech impediment.

- Wouldn't it be sweet to see Chavez Jr. tangle with De La Hoya before he calls it a career? If only Chavez would be polished enough by then.

- I hung out with Alfonso Gomez, a good friend of mine for a little while on Saturday. Funny guy! Expect to hear from him in the coming months, specifically on our weekly boxing podcast, 3 More Rounds.

- If you haven't yet added our 3 More Rounds myspace page, what are you waiting for? www.myspace.com/3morerounds. You can subscribe to our show on iTunes as well!

- I'll be in Las Vegas this weekend covering Hatton vs. Malignaggi. If you're in the area, shoot me an email ([e-mail]) and we'll shoot the shit with some beers.

- If Evander Holyfield beats Nicolai Valuev I'll come into work the following Monday in an inside-out dress shirt and slippers…I'll even take a picture of it.

- I really dig those Ring Magazine themed Affliction shirts that are coming out. If you saw Sunday's De La Hoya/Pacquiao 24/7 episode, you know what I'm talking about. Hey Affliction, how about you shoot one over?

Till next week, see you at the fights!