Oscar confirms Pacquiao bout, bags retirement talk

[August 29, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Oscar De La Hoya finally has an opponent for his farewell fight -- only the Golden Boy's tantalizing matchup with Manny Pacquiao might not be his final bout after all.

De La Hoya and Pacquiao have confirmed their plan to meet Dec. 6 in Las Vegas, matching the most popular star in boxing with arguably the sport's best pound-for-pound fighter.

After Pacquiao, the dynamic Filipino lightweight, agreed to move up 12 pounds to welterweight, De La Hoya inked a deal for what's certain to be boxing's most lucrative bout since his split-decision loss last year to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the richest fight in boxing history.

Yet De La Hoya (39-5-0, 30 KOs) changed the fight's stakes Thursday when he acknowledged he wasn't sure he'll retire afterward. De La Hoya repeatedly had said he would quit boxing after this year, but his inability to land a rematch with Mayweather in September might have altered his plans.

"Let's just say my foot's got caught in the door," De La Hoya said. "My focus is my training. My focus is my next fight. I'm not going to talk about retirement. I'm not going to think about retirement. I want to be 100 percent focused on the job I've got to take care of, and we'll see after the fight how I feel."

De La Hoya will take on Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs) at the MGM Grand Garden, which has hosted each of his last six fights except his victory over Steve Forbes last May in Carson, Calif. Given De La Hoya's worldwide popularity and Pacquiao's fanatical following in his native Philippines, the fight seems likely to challenge the HBO pay-per-view records set by De La Hoya's fight with Mayweather.

"This is what boxing is all about," said Top Rank's Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter. "This fight will demonstrate to everyone that there is no sport universally as popular as boxing."

Talks for the long-discussed fight stalled last week before reaching a conclusion in recent days, but both fighters already have sized up their unlikely new opponents. De La Hoya vowed to prove he still has enough speed to take on the quick-fisted Pacquiao, while Pacquiao declared himself unafraid of going after a much bigger man.

"I know everybody thinks this fight will be a difficult fight for me," Pacquiao said. "I know some people say that it's a very easy fight for Oscar, but I always do my job in the ring, and I'll do my best to give a good fight and to win this fight. I think I can beat De La Hoya in this bout. I saw his last performance, and I think I'm faster and stronger than him, and I'm younger."

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer and Arum wouldn't reveal their solution to the financial issues that nearly scuttled the deal earlier in the month, with Arum only saying, "each fighter had to give a little bit." De La Hoya wanted 70 percent of the revenue during initial discussions, while Pacquiao had insisted on 40 percent.

The fighters' money disparities seem much less important than their size difference. De La Hoya, who's four inches taller than Pacquiao, hasn't fought below 150 pounds in nearly eight years, while Pacquiao's victory over David Diaz in June was his first fight at even 135 pounds.

"A lot of people are going to be very surprised when we're standing next to each other," said De La Hoya, who weighed just over 150 pounds last week. "Size isn't going to be that much of a difference."

De La Hoya claimed he got extra motivation for the fight from Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's longtime trainer who filled in for Floyd Mayweather Sr. in De La Hoya's corner last year. Roach was eager to see Pacquiao take the fight, saying Pacquiao was too quick for the 35-year-old Golden Boy.

"I felt challenged, especially from an expert trainer like that," De La Hoya said. "He knows my style, and he knows Manny's, and for him to say that was a big challenge."

If De La Hoya remains privately committed to retirement, a fight with Pacquiao isn't an easy way to go out -- but De La Hoya has rarely avoided major challenges in his 16-year professional career since winning a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics. He has fought nearly every major name in his weight classes, and now he's even dipping down to the lighter ranks to find a bigger challenge than Sergio Mora, Paul Williams or other fighters suggested for his December bout.

"I have to find a way to increase my speed," De La Hoya said. "We're three months away, and we have to figure out quick how we're going to neutralize him. It's going to be an explosive fight. We're going to fight in the center of the ring."

[Associated Press; By GREG BEACHAM]

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