By P.H. Burbridge (A voice in the crowd) – Well now that the Oscar De La Hoya vs Manny Pacquiao “Super fight” appears to be off the table it sure feels like Oscar De La Hoya was “trying” take the easy way out! Unfortunately, for him and probably more so for Manny Pacquiao the boxing public let them BOTH know what they thought about the match. I don’t think the “no go” had anything to do with the money. (Or at least it wasn’t the main determining factor).
Whether it was a 60-40, 70-30 or even a 80-20 split that would have been MUCH more then Manny could ever make as the Lightweight Champion and probably more then he would have made in 3 or 4 fights so can we really believe that talks “broke down” because of the money? I’m sure Manny was game for the money offered. Talks broke down because we all said “GIVE US A BREAK, OSCAR!” Loudly!
If fight fans were for it the fight would have gone through some how. Terms would have been agreed upon. But, since Oscar has been taking such a beating in the press the fight died. One thing you can never accuse Oscar De La Hoya of is being stupid. In fact, Oscar is quite an impressive business man and he knows this game. He knows how to gauge public sentiment when it comes to promoting a fight and he saw nothing but trouble in promoting this one and needed a way to get out of it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already been in contact with the man he really wanted to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. The truth is simple. Neither Oscar De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather Jr wants anything to do with Antonio Margarito and they can effectively make his name disappear from the headlines by agreeing to fight each other. I’m sure Floyd can be persuaded now that he’s been away from his beloved spotlight for some time and is tired of all the Margarito chatter that simply won’t go away. Same deal for Oscar. Oscar needs to start making some concessions to get PBF in the ring. If Oscar can score that fight then he’ll get back some of his credibility and we might just forgive him for trying to get over on us with the Pacquiao debacle.
Reports have Floyd Jr working out in Vegas at 3 AM. Now that may just be Floyd wanting to stay in shape but my question to him is “why don’t you have a home gym when you live a palace?” I’m sure that mansion has everything else. He’s working out in public because he likes to fan the flames and he likes all the whispers. Maybe Floyd has already talked to Oscar and a deal is in the making. We’ll know in the coming days one way or another. Oscar needs a dance partner for Dec 6 and it’s getting close to “calling it off time” unless he gets a signature on a contract.