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ROACH, DE LA HOYA UP THE RHETORIC By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Tue, 18 Nov 2008  Manny Pacquiao was his usual decent self at his media workout at the Wild Card gym of trainer Freddie Roach as part of the buildup for his ?Dream Match? with Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6 but Roach played the bad guy by continuing to needle De La Hoya with his comments. The two-time ?Trainer of the Year? who trained De La Hoya for his megabuck fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr two-timed De La Hoya by calling his former student "weak minded" while at the same time praising Pacquiao for being "strong minded." Pacquiao who has often been admired for his refusal to bad-mouth his opponents declined to comment on the statements of Roach who insists that Pacquiao will knock De La Hoya out in nine rounds just like he did to WBC lightweight champion David Diaz last June. Pacquiao for his part once again said he has trained harder than ever before for what he termed the hardest fight of his career and said if a knockout comes ?it will be a bonus.? Roach who previously claimed that De La Hoya ?cant pull the trigger? took another dig at ?The Golden Boy? saying he is a ?a part-time fighter? who had only figured in four fights over the past four years while Pacquiao had, on the other hand, fought four times in the last year." Pointing to the differences in their ages as Pacquiao will turn 30 this December 17 while De La Hoya is 35, Pacquiao 29 Roach said that De La Hoya will learn just as Muhammad Ali learned when he was badly beaten by his former sparring partner Larry Holmes and as Julio Cesar Chavez did against De La Hoya, what happens when old boxers go up against young guns. "Oscar will find out how Chavez felt 10 years ago," Roach said. "The younger fighters take over. It's Manny's time now." Pacquiao conceded that in his 52 pro fights in a storied career that saw him win four world titles in different divisions De La Hoya will be the most best-skilled boxer he will face. Roach and Pacquiao have worked on a fight-plan that Roach says will spell major trouble for De La Hoya. De La Hoya said in a recent interview on ESPN Sportscenter that he lost the fight with Mayweather when he suddenly stopped using his left jab and had no explanation on why he did. But Roach claimed "I know why the jab stopped working and that's part of our plan." De La Hoya in an international conference call Tuesday, Manila Time, backed up an earlier statement that he would knock Pacquiao out in five rounds said he would be ?extremely disappointed if the fight doesn?t end in a knockout. It will be a total disaster for me.? De La Hoya reiterated what he told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports in an exclusive interview right after news of the Pacquiao fight broke saying ?this is personal? because of Pacquiao?s decision to sign with Top Rank some 24 hours after signing a deal with Golden Boy Promotions and receiving a cash advance of $250,000. While he refuses to publicly state that he wishes to give Pacquiao a bad beating De La Hoya admits that what Pacquiao did to him was ?one of the reasons why the fight is personal to me.? Saying that Pacquiao turned his back on him after signing a deal, De La Hoya made it clear that Pacquiao ?is gonna pay come December 6.? Showing his bitterness De La Hoya said ?I don?t want him to be talking about honor and this and that. He didn?t honor me that night and I?m not gonna honor him on December 6.? Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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