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[XaduBoxer]

Ricky Hatton: "Pacquiao's aggressiveness will win it,"

link: On target: 'Hitman' sees Pacquiao win vs Oscar

[XaduBoxer]

Oscar De La Hoya will be upstaged


link: Oscar De La Hoya will be upstaged - Los Angeles Times

Pacquiao will win this match for the following five reasons:

* The Felix Trinidad Syndrome

It was 1999, De La Hoya had not been beaten, was 26 years old, had the boxing world by the tail, and clearly looked invincible. Against Trinidad, he appeared to win the first seven rounds. A victory seemed secure, the planets were aligned.

And then he decided to stick and move, boxing parlance for running. The judges weren't impressed and Trinidad got the decision.

In retrospect, the moment proved that De La Hoya, who has never been hit much or hurt badly, is too smart to be a brawler and generally finds that distasteful.

Pacquiao likes to brawl.

* The Shane Mosley Syndrome

De La Hoya lost twice to this very good boxer from Pomona, also a bit smaller than De La Hoya. Mosley's skills are built around foot speed and hand speed.

So are Pacquiao's.

* The Floyd Mayweather Jr. Syndrome

De La Hoya fought Mayweather on May 5 of last year. Until today, that was boxing's biggest recent showcase. In De La Hoya's corner last year was trainer Freddie Roach, who pushed him to use his always-reliable jab to push Mayweather into submission over the entire 12 rounds.

Somewhere along the line, De La Hoya stopped jabbing and Mayweather started winning. Roach knows why the jabbing stopped, and he is in the Pacquiao corner for this one.

* The Stevie Forbes Syndrome

De La Hoya fought Stevie Forbes on May 3 of this year.

It was a wonderful public relations gesture. It was held in the soccer stadium at the Home Depot Center, where there was room for more than 20,000 people and more than that showed up. Ticket prices were scaled down to allow access for the common man to see this boxer of the people.

It is the kind of thing that De La Hoya does best. Huge public exposure. Flash that wonderful smile. Win friends and influence people. If he hadn't been a boxer, he'd be governor.

De La Hoya won a decision over Forbes, who was even smaller than Pacquiao and who won his way into this match by losing in the final of a made-for-TV show.

Afterward, De La Hoya's face was badly swollen and a small bone under one eye had been broken.

* The Marquez, Diaz Syndrome

On March 15 of this year, Pacquiao won a split decision over Juan Manuel Marquez in a fight that featured speed, endurance, tactics and brawling. Three months later, Pacquiao knocked out David Diaz in the ninth round. Diaz was a bigger fighter who could brawl and take a punch. Pacquiao had prepared for De La Hoya by taking on a little bit of everything.

The Diaz fight was Pacquiao's 12th fight in the same five-year period in which De La Hoya had six. Pacquiao's record in that span is 10-1-1.