As you know, this is not the fight I wanted to see as Oscar's farewell fight (whether it really is a farewell fight remains to be seen). I would have preferred he went out against Antonio Margarito. I'm not being critical of Oscar but I just feel with this fight he puts himself between a rock and a hard place. Though Oscar is certainly not the first fighter to take on a smaller opponent, he has, at the very least, been the most criticized, and wrongly so.A loss to Manny Paquiao, would not keep him out of the Hall of Fame but it would certainly tarnish his legacy, and for what? A win would produce jeers, no matter how the fight turns out. An easy win over Paquiao would seem like a foregone conclusion and produce a collective "So what". A hard fought narrow victory would justify (at least in perception) all the criticism.
However, since they are going to fight, my hope is that De La Hoya will whip himself into the best shape of his life and fight as if he means it. Don't let it become a battle of attrition, because Manny will be there fighting, swinging and trying his damnedest to win, from the first bell to the last. It's what he does. If Paquiao wins this fight he won't just be the national hero of the Philippines, he'll be their god.
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