De La Hoya-Pacquiao boxing match
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| Date | December 6, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | None (Fought at welterweight) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pacquiao via 8th round TKO | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boxer |
 Oscar De La Hoya |
 Manny Pacquiao |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | The Golden Boy | Pac-Man | |
| Hometown | East Los Angeles, California, USA | General Santos City, Philippines | |
| Pre-fight record | 39-5 (30 KO) | 47-3-2 (35 KO) | |
| Height | 5 feet, 10 inches | 5 feet, 6.5 inches | |
| Weight | 145 pounds | 142 pounds | |
| Style | Orthodox | Southpaw |
Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, also billed as The Dream Match, was a professional boxing welterweight superfight. The bout took place on December 6, 2008 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Pacquiao defeated De La Hoya via technical knockout when De La Hoya decided not to continue with the fight before the start of the ninth round. The card was a co-production of Bob Arum's Top Rank Boxing and De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions and was aired live on pay-per-view (PPV) on HBO PPV. The fight is notable for propelling Manny Pacquiao to full-blown superstar status in much of the western world (mostly in The United States), as Oscar De La Hoya symbolically "passed the torch", so to speak, to Pacquiao.
Despite no title belts being disputed, the bout received a lot of publicity since the two boxers were decorated, with Pacquiao being the current number one pound for pound boxer in the world as judged by The Ring, and a five-time world champion in five different weight divisions (Pacquiao was the reigning WBC lightweight champion at the time of the bout). Meanwhile, De La Hoya was an Olympic gold medalist and past holder of 10 world titles in six weight divisions.
Pacquiao had to step up two weight divisions (from lightweight), and De La Hoya had to go down one weight division (from light middleweight), to be eligible for the bout's welterweight division.
The ideas of having De La Hoya and Pacquiao fight came from HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant talking with ESPN boxing analyst Dan Rafael. Larry then presented the idea to Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer and Top Rank CEO Bob Arum. Bob presented the idea to Manny Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach. It was even mentioned on the PPV broadcast that it was Larry's idea, even mentioning Dan Rafael by name. Freddie Roach since the De La Hoya- Mayweather fight has said in the media and in the De La Hoya/Pacquiao 24/7 series, press conferences, promos leading to the Dream Match that Oscar "can't pull the trigger anymore."
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Wikipedia