Wayne McCullough was ringside to see Oscar de la Hoya's sad demise at the hands of Manny Pacquiao.
Will Oscar's decline set up Mayweather-Pacquiao?
The 'Dream Match' is over but the underdog emerged as the winner.
Oscar De La Hoya was the fighter moving down in weight and Manny Pacquiao was moving up. The day before the fight Oscar officially weighed in at 145lbs while Pacquiao weighed 142lbs. Come fight time Oscar had put on only two more pounds, according to the HBO unofficial scale, and Pacquiao had gained only six.
Although Pacquiao was the heavier of the two going into the fight, he was clearly the smaller guy in the ring and before the first bell rang it was looking like a mismatch.
But as soon as the first round started it looked as though de la Hoya was fighting underwater. He had no speed, no head movement and his timing was off. His skin was loose and he appeared to be skinny, dehydrated and weak. He couldn't get any punches off.
The most important thing for a fighter to have and typically the last thing to go is his punch. Oscar's was non-existent. He hit Pacquiao a few times, mainly to the body, over the course of the fight but they had zero effect.
Pacquiao displayed his usual style, jumping in with straight lefts while carrying his right hand low but he was able to land his left hands at will not just once but sometimes two or three times in a row.
I thought that De La Hoya's signature left hook would have knocked Pacquiao out, but he rarely threw the shot and when he did it missed - by a mile.
Slipped
Last week I suggested that if Pacquiao had no worries with the weight and if he was confident, his work rate and punch power could get to de la Hoya - and that would prove if the Golden Boy had slipped.
Pacquiao dominated every round with his quick left hands and smart footwork moving around the ring. He threw punches in bunches and that was the key in this fight.
After a few rounds it was clear that Oscar wasn't going to win and he was hesitant about getting close. He tried a little harder in the fifth round but with very little success. His face was swelling badly round after round but he couldn't do anything to avoid the shots and his body didn't seem to be working with his head.
In my opinion, De La Hoya hasn't looked good in years.
He looked terrible in his controversial win over Felix Sturm in June 2004 - he seemed to have slipped after his body shot loss to Bernard Hopkins in September 2004 - then he came back almost two years later and knocked out Ricardo Mayorga in May 2006.
But that didn't prove anything as far as I'm concerned. He fought a wild fighter that night who normally catches punches with his face.
Trigger
He tired easily against Floyd Mayweather Jnr and couldn't pull the trigger - and got hit so often in his win over Stevie Forbes, that his face was really marked up afterwards.
All of these fights have documented Oscar's fall from grace. The once Golden Boy - a multiple world champion - had not looked like his former self since his win over Fernando Vargas in 2002.
In the seventh round of the Pacquiao fight, de la Hoya was just hanging on. He wasn't getting hit with hooks to the body, left and right hooks to the head and was trying to cover up.
Referee Tony Weeks could have stopped the fight in that round because there was no reply from Oscar and it gave the impression that he would have been OK if the ref had stepped in.
Pacquiao got fresher and fresher each round but it was the opposite for De La Hoya.
I've taken some punishment down the years - we all know that - and maybe I like it just a little too much! But I was ringside screaming for the ref to stop the fight.
Hero
Finally De La Hoya's corner stopped him after round number eight. He didn't protest. On two scorecards he lost every round including a 10-8 round in the seveth.
Pacquiao was the stronger, fresher, younger and hungrier fighter. He said he beat his hero on Saturday night and, for me, it was reminiscent of Oscar's fight with Julio Cesar Chavez when he was fighting his own hero that night.
A fight with Ricky Hatton could be on the cards for Pacquiao now, but I think Mayweather Jnr should come out of retirement and fight Pacquiao now. He has defeated both Hatton and De La Hoya so now he could fight the man who beat Oscar. Unretire Floyd!
Oscar's future should be in his promotional company. His legacy as a fighter in the sport of boxing is secured for life.
