Bad Left Hook
I know this was linked in the most recent Mandatory Eight Count post, but since I'm just really getting back into the swing of things, I just saw this, and it's really sticking in my craw.
In Oscar de la Hoya's Ring blog, he recently offered this quote:
If Pacquiao doesn’t want to do this and risk a possible $40 million payday because he’s afraid of needles or believes he’ll be weakened by blood tests, then that raises question marks.
Now I have to wonder about him. I’m saying to myself, "Wow. Those Mosley punches, those Vargas punches and those Pacquiao punches all felt the same."
Now obviously, the first obnoxious thing is that promoter Oscar is using a respected and highly-read publication as his personal soapbox, showing blatant favoritism for Mayweather (who "isn't" a Golden Boy fighter, but yes he is) in this situation. This is exactly what people feared when Golden Boy bought the publication. I know that many don't take anything Oscar says very seriously, and rightly so, but those many are still the minority against the random lookie-loos and casual passers-by that are going to hop over to The Ring's site and get this as an influential piece by Famous Boxer Oscar de la Hoya.
(I also realize that it's sort of ironic for me to get upset over someone standing on a soapbox on the internet, but rest assured, I don't confuse this site with The Ring.)
But here's what's seriously just on my nerves beyond belief. I'm going to quote this line again, bold it, and box it:
I’m saying to myself, "Wow. Those Mosley punches, those Vargas punches and those Pacquiao punches all felt the same."
OH DID THEY?
If you've paid attention for a little while, say a year or so, you just might remember the famous Oscar saying after that fight that Manny Pacquiao doesn't hit hard.
Here's the quote, straight from Oscar, published by Michael Rosenthal of The Ring on February 20, 2009:
"I just didn’t care. I didn’t care if he was hitting me because I couldn’t do anything about it. Luckily he doesn’t hit hard. Obviously, if he would’ve hit hard, he would have knocked me out with no problem."
So which is it, Oscar? Does Manny hit so hard, the power of Mosley and Vargas, and thus you JUST HAVE TO WONDER if he's on performance-enhancing drugs, or does he hit so lightly that you weren't really bothered, just out shape and demoralized because you couldn't keep pace with him?
One of these statements is a pure lie, is my point. An absolute lie. And given that he had nothing to really gain by saying that Pacquiao doesn't hit very hard, I'm guessing that one wasn't it.
No, I'm guessing his sudden comparison of Pacquiao's power to Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas is probably the lie. I can't come up with a particularly good way in which this could benefit Oscar as a promoter, really. He's taking a very clear and heavy-handed (pardon the pun) public stance on this, and he's been taking weird pot-shots at Manny Pacquiao every time Pacquiao's had a fight lined up for the last year.
I've said many times that I find Oscar both off-putting and fascinating, that I'm not a fan of his and that I feel as though many things about him come off as fake put-ons meant to Crest Whitestrip his public image. But this is getting close to an all-time low, really. The man is either contradicting himself or he's a flat-out liar looking either to gain an upper-hand business-wise (which might not add up at all), or just score some sort of bizarre self-satisfaction, which given some of his past statements, seems more likely.
Source: badlefthook.com
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