Ask 411 Boxing 12.16.08: Our First Ever Mailbag

Posted by Carlos Calderon on 12.16.2008

In our first ever edition of Ask 411 Boxing, Carlos Calderon tackles some burning questions from you, our readers starting with Oscar's putrid performance against Manny Pacquiao.



Hello again everyone and welcome to our first ever edition of Ask 411 Boxing, our new weekly mailbag where every two weeks, one of our boxing writers will tackle on your questions on the Sweet Science. Be sure to send in your questions to [e-mail]! This week, Carlos Calderon will take the helm for the inaugural mailbag and he gets it going right off the bat with a question about the Golden Boy.

Jeff Gonzalez, Carson, CA- What the hell was wrong with Oscar on Dec. 6th?

What exactly went right on that night Jeff?

Everything went horribly wrong for the Golden Boy on that night. Not only did he lose to a much smaller fighter, but he got beat down severely. From the start to the finish Pacman constantly peppered him with stiff left hands right between De La Hoya's guard. In the seventh round Pacman turned up the aggression and opened up on De La Hoya with a barrage of punches from different angles. The whole event completely blew up in Golden Boy's face.

There were rumors of De La Hoya being on weight for about a month before the fight. For an older fighter like DLH, who hasn't weighed 147 pounds since 2001, to be on weight and hold that weight for a full month is very dangerous. Oscar had been talking about a new diet he had been implementing during training and yes it did work, but the end result for being on weight especially that early was too much for De La Hoya's body. He didn't even gain weight within 24 hours after weighing in!

Another reason why De La Hoya might have suffered such a horrible loss, other than him being old and many years past his prime, could be the result of overtraining. This is the first time Oscar has been in camp with Nacho Berestain, who is known for his hard training regiment that he puts on his fighters, such as Rafael and Juan Manuel Marquez. Add to that that it is also rumored that Oscar sparred over 100 rounds for the fight. That is some serious working out especially for the older De La Hoya.

I personally think that De La Hoya's body took too much punishment trying to make weight and overtraining. There was no way he was going to be ready for this fight either way you look at it.

Hey maybe that was Freddie Roach's plan?


Michael Adams, Atlanta, GA – What would you rather see Hatton vs. Pacman or Cotto vs. Margarito II?

Many people wouldn't agree with me, but I am amped to see the return of Miguel Cotto. I have been watching Cotto since he lost to in 2001 Olympics. I have seen him overcome adversity in fights with Ricardo Torres and Demarcus Corley. So yes you can call me a Cotto fan.

There are a lot of questions to be answered with Cotto's comeback, more questions than Hatton-Pacquiao.

1) How much damage if any did Cotto's body and confidence take after suffering that type of punishing loss to Margarito?

2) Has he learned anything in the first fight that can give him a slight advantage against Margarito in their second fight?

3) Can Cotto still be a force within the welterweight division even if he loses to Margarito for a second time?

With the Hatton-Pacquaio fight it would just to be two of the top fighters battling out in the ring. With Cotto–Margarito there is a lot more drama going on in the background than pitting two fighters against each other. Plus Juan Manuel Lopez is rumored to appear on the card. Can't get much better than that!


Surge Mercado, Orlando, FL – Is Pacman a beast or what?

Yes, Surge Pacquiao is a beast……..now calm down.


Jonathan Diaz, Brooklyn, NY – Los, How credible are the rumors that Floyd is considering returning to the ring to fight Pacquiao?

I think it is possible that Floyd Mayweather Jr. could be thinking of landing a fight with Manny Pacquiao. He has apparently already tried contacting Floyd Sr. about it and the fight would be a huge money maker. If he wanted to he could easily get the fight made. I still think however that Mayweather should be fighting the winner of Cotto-Margarito II.


Justin Swift, NA – How stoked are you for the Holyfied fight this December?

I'm not at all stoked Justin to be honest with you, but if you are asking me who is going to win then I'll take Valuev.

Bottom line is that Holyfied is past his prime…far beyond his prime. Valuev can be outboxed and out hustled and a prime Holyfield will no doubt be able to get the job done, but now it is a different story. Holyfield's body will shut down after the second or third round. From there on I predict a nice and long snore fest for the next nine or ten rounds.


Dean Coronado, San Mateo, CA – Did De La Hoya quit?

Did Shane Mosley take steroids? I think De La Hoya quit in the third round. Sure he didn't say he wanted to quit, but he sure didn't beg to continue did he? When Jean Pascal was leaking from his forehead like the Hover Damn he was begging like a baby to continue. De La Hoya just sat back with a blank expression on his face. I think you can tell the difference in their reaction to the possibility of getting the fight stopped. Officially, it was trainer Nacho Beristain who called it off but like I said, Oscar sure didn't have a problem with it.


Jason Bradley, Texas – Their front man was blown out by the Pacmonster and the undercard was just weak. What does the "Dream Match" nightmare mean to Golden Boy Promotions?


Their undercard was horrible. I don't know if waiting 45 minutes to watch De La Hoya get slapped around or if watching the undercard was worse. Everything went bad on that night. Many fans brought the Pay-Per-View expecting a solid undercard since the card was filled with widely known prospects, sadly the card backfired badly. This will only make the fans think twice before buying any PPV card weather it is being promoted by Golden Boy or not. So I would say it hurts not only GBP, but boxing as a whole.

Calzaghe-Jones had the worst undercard of the year followed by De La Hoya-Pacquaio. Most fans already pay $14.95 a piece per month for HBO and Showtime. Promoters can't expect fans to cash out $50 more for an overall weak card. We're in hard times right now. Fans that are willing to pay should get more bang for their buck.


Barnard Peterman, Newark, NJ – Who wins, a prime Floyd Mayweather or a prime Sugar Ray Robinson?

Mayweather vs. Robinson?…come on Nard. Robinson all the way.

And now the final question of the week is another one about Pretty Boy Floyd...


DJ, Atlanta - Why is everyone at HBO so vocal and critical of Mayweather for ducking Margarito and saying he has never beaten big time fighters but they won't mention the same about DLH. He has lost every big fight he had with the exception of Vargas ( who himself is not a big time fighter just a name). DLH has not been any better than Holyfield recently in big fights. Yet he does not get any criticism from any media members especially HBO. He is ducking Margarito too. He wants to fight smaller fighters like Pacman who he feels he can get a guaranteed victory against (Pacquiao ultimately stopped DLH). This guy fought Steve Forbes (gimme a break) and no one said a word yet they kill Mayweather for the same thing. Why?

Our own Ryan Kaye answers this one:

Why? There are two reasons -- because Mayweather is a jackass and Oscar isn't.

"That's not fair to Floyd!" Not that Floyd is the vision of fair play, but let's look into this.

When Mayweather was fighting guys like Carlos Baldomir, who is about as elite a fighter as a "Dancing With The Stars" celebrity is an A-lister, HBO said nothing. Gatti, Chop Chop, Sharmba Mitchell? HBO kept their mouths shut. As far as anyone knew, Floyd could box on a ring made of water -- he was that holy to them. At the same time, Oscar De La Hoya was also on his downward spiral. He struck out against Mosley, against Hopkins, and got a beautifully wrapped gift package in his "win" over Felix Sturm. He played patty cake with Stevie Forbes before having it handed to him on a silver platter by Manny Pacquiao. The only one who spoke out during either of these times was Max Kellerman. Notice how little he was on-screen for these periods though.

When did things change? When Mayweather opened his fat mouth. Again. Back in July, "Money" put part of his payroll on blast, claiming that the HBO announcing team of Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, and Emanuel Stewart were racist. He said they dragged his nasty outside-the-ring life into the story more often than others, and that fighters like Kelly Pavlik and Manny Pacquiao get more than their fair share. His exact quote was: "...they talk about Kelly Pavlik, a white fighter, like he's the second coming. Or they go crazy over Manny Pacquiao. But I'm a black fighter. Is it racial? Absolutely. They praise white fighters, they praise Hispanic fighters, whatever. But black fighters, they never praise."

Note to Floyd -- Manny is Filipino. Don't you know when you're making false claims you at least need a weak, but factually accurate, correlation?

When Floyd said that, he effectively bit the hand that fed him, as now HBO felt just as little need to tamper their sentiment as Floyd apparently did. Meanwhile, Oscar merrily went along making mega-fights where he wasn't even batting .500. If Oscar's bringing HBO mega-bucks and not flapping his lips, versus "Pretty Boy" who's now "retired" and spewing hellfire at HBO, and they both are guilty of the same crime, who do you burn at the stake?

Now, whether or not the HBO on-air team is racist is not my specialty. I've never seen anything that backs that sentiment; then again, 99% of the time when I'm watching HBO fights, I'm paying attention to the actual boxing. But the moral of the story: If something seems askew in boxing, follow the money and see where it leads you.

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That'll do it for this week's Ask 411 Boxing mailbag, but don't forget to post your questions here or send them over to [e-mail] and we'll be sure to get to them as quickly as possible.

See you next time!