Round-by-round coverage of pound-for-pound kingpin Manny Pacquiao’s welterweight victory over Oscar De La Hoya. Pacquiao won via TKO when De La Hoya couldn’t answer the bell for the ninth round.
ROUND 1
De La Hoya closed as a 2-1 favorite. De La Hoya is minus-200 and Pacquiao is plus-170. The over-under is 9½ rounds. Pacquiao comes out with a slight weight advantage tonight. On the unofficial HBO scales, he weighed 148½ and De La Hoya was 147. De La Hoya is the aggressor early, but nothing lands in the first minute. Straight left from Pacquiao and then a combination from Pacquiao connects. Lead left by Pacquiao. Right to the body by Oscar. Manny misses a big hook. Straight left by Pacquiao. Combination to the head by De La Hoya backs Pacquiao up. Right by Oscar connects. Straight left by Manny.
Iole scores it 10-9, Pacquiao
ROUND 2
Lead right by De La Hoya and a right hook from Pacquiao. Double jab by De La Hoya. Pacquiao is circling away. Combination from Oscar but doesn’t land flush. Combination to the body by De La Hoya. Right-left from Pacquiao. De La Hoya’s face is reddened from the punches. Pacquiao left lands and then an uppercut. Lead left by Pacquiao keeps getting through. Difference in hand speed is stark. Hard jab and then a left by Pacquiao. Lead left by Pacquiao.
Iole scores it 10-9, Pacquiao.
ROUND 3
Lead left from Pacquiao to open the round connects. De La Hoya has to stop that. De La Hoya is doing nothing offensively in first minute of round. Pacquiao flicks a jab that is short. Right to the head and left to the body from De La Hoya. Lead left again by Pacquiao. Left to the body from Pacquiao. Oscar seems befuddled. Right hook to the body from Pacquiao.
Iole scores it 10-9, Pacquiao
ROUND 5
De La Hoya connects with a jab, but first 30 seconds of round are very slow. They’re circling but not throwing much. Pacquiao lands a right hook. Triple jab from Pacquiao. Combination from Pacquiao backs De La Hoya up. The way this is going, it wouldn’t be a shock if De La Hoya were to quit on the stool at some point. He’s taking a tremendous amount of punishment. Body shot by Oscar lands and then two lefts. Oscar’s left eye is closing. He looks like a beaten, old and shot fighter.
Iole scores it 10-9, Pacquiao
ROUND 6
Nothing happens in first minute of round. Pacquiao lands left to body and a left to the cheek. They trade in the corner and Pacquiao gets the best of it. Straight left from Pacquiao lands. Hard straight left by Pacquiao snaps Oscar’s head back. De La Hoya’s left eye is a mess. Right by Pacquiao lands on that eye. This may be stopped soon by the corner.
Iole scores it 10-9, Pacquiao
ROUND 7
Lead right by De La Hoya lands to open the round. Pacquiao rakes De La Hoya with a three-punch combination. Double jab by Manny. Pacquiao batters De La Hoya into the corner. He’s pinned on the ropes and Pacquiao is firing away. Fight is close to ending. Pacquiao is hitting De La Hoya hard with everything he throws. Oscar is in big, big trouble. Left to the body by Pacquiao hurts Oscar. Oscar has never been beaten like this in any of his 44 previous fights. Pacquiao is overwhelming him.
Iole scores it 10-8, Pacquiao
ROUND 8
Pacquiao goes to the body and is warned by referee Tony Weeks to keep them up. Lead right by Oscar connects. Combination by Pacquiao pins Oscar in the corner. Lead left by Pacquiao buzzes De La Hoya. Combination wobbles him in the corner. Double jab by Pacquiao. Combination by Pacquiao lands. De La Hoya goes to the body. Four-punch combination by Pacquiao lands and hurts Oscar.
Iole scores it 10-9, Pacquiao
ROUND 9
Fight is stopped just as the round is set to begin. Manny Pacquiao is the winner. Official time is 3:00 of the eighth.
Pacquiao makes De La Hoya quit after eight
Seth Petruzelli (11-4) def. Kimbo Slice (3-1)
Ref stoppage in 14 seconds
Turning point: Petruzelli dropped Slice immediately with a jab and pummeled him with punch after punch until ref Todd Waugh stopped it.
Analysis: The ramifications here are numerous. Even if the television rating is big, the goose that laid the golden egg was exposed by a fighter who previously was known only to the most hardcore fans. In the long run, that is devastating to the company and for MMA on CBS. The future is very much up in the air.
David Blaine Vs. Kimbo Slice
Final curtain for the Kimbo show
SUNRISE, Fla. – The legend of Kimbo Slice was built by beating bums in boat yards and back alleys not far from here. It came crashing down Saturday courtesy of a quick punch from a pink-haired journeyman giving up two inches in height, four in reach and 30 pounds in muscle and might.
One simple shot sent Slice to the canvas and from there some guy named Seth Petruzelli needed just 12 punches and 14 seconds to put an end (we hope) to one of the great sporting charades of all time.
It was just a matter of time before Kimbo got exposed. He was little more than a character out of central casting, a bunch of addictive YouTube videos and a lot of insane hype by CBS, which made him a headliner before he made himself a fighter.
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Solo Boxeo: Jauregui Wins NABF 135 Title
Former IBF lightweight world title holder Javier Jauregui survived a late knock down to win the NABF 135 lbs. belt on Friday night, after he unanimously out-pointed gritty Mexican Miguel Angel Huerta over 12 hard-fought rounds at Cicero Stadium in greater Chicago, IL.
Jauregui 53-14-2 (36) the trigger happy former world champion was met this evening by Huerta, 26-9-1 (18) an equally aggressive and heads down Mexican battler. A closely fought, grinder of a boxing match was expected and both guys delivered – treating fans to a wonderfully spirited 36 minutes of action that could have seen the fight go either way.
About ten seconds went by in the first round before a punch was thrown – a left jab by Huerta – but after that watershed there was nothing stopping either man. Both fighters pounded each other to the head and body with short, crisp punches – Jauregui scored beautifully with uppercuts and combinations to the head, but Huerta responded with a thudding body attack and connected with his fair share of power upstairs in a very close frame.
The combatants set the tone in that first three minutes for, what would be, an exciting but extremely hard-to-score twelve rounder. After a feisty opening exchange in the second, Jauregui clubbed his opponent with a right hand at around the thirty second mark. The shot initially knocked Huerta off balance, but he refused to allow the veteran to take advantage as he immediately fashioned a powerful four punch sequence – forcing Jauregui to retreat. Huerta enjoyed the better of the frame from then forward. His punches landed cleanly and in greater volume than the 34-year-old – most notably at the two minute mark when he scored heavily as Jauregui covered up against the ropes.
Huerta continued to harass his fellow countryman with a high volume attack in the third, but Jauregui was defending better and landing crunching, single shots to the body and head of the 30-year-old throughout the round – his improved accuracy in this frame trumping the work rate of Huerta.
Jauregui ate a big straight left hand at the outset of the fourth frame – the punch catching him flush on the chin as he backed out of an exchange. As Huerta attempted to capitalize, however, Jauregui caught him beautifully with power shots that swung the momentum in his favor. Throughout the remainder of the round, Huerta tried to out-do his opponent when responding to combinations, but Jauregui’s punches were much more eye-catching – the exception being a stray left hand that caught Huerta low at the end of the frame which prompted a warning from referee Curtis Thrasher.
In the middle rounds, Jauregui looked like he had begun to take control of the bout. In the fifth and sixth, he landed with his best sustained flow of punches thus far against the jaw of his opponent. But, like before, Huerta fought back with thudding and well worked shots of his own. Even so, Jauregui’s fists, it seemed, were doing more damage and he started to look comfortable and rhythmic for the first time.
Huerta surged forward in the eighth frame, doubling his already impressive efforts in an attempt to halt Jauregui’s recent success. He tagged his opponent against the ropes on several occasions and, although he was connecting with some meaty punches upstairs, Jauregui responded with heavy shots of his own and urged Huerta to keep coming – gesturing to his chin with both hands to show that he was ready for anything that came at him.
Huerta obliged and, after another closely fought round in the ninth, he dropped Jauregui in the tenth with a left hand that caught the former champ off balance and sent him tumbling to the deck. Jauregui was unhurt but, given the dogged and competitive nature of the contest, he must have been worried that a 10-8 score would prove crucial in the outcome. Huerta, however, would not wait for Jauregui to make up for lost ground and he easily won the remainder of the frame behind a terrific output of scoring punches.
Jauregui did not panic, even after spending the first third of the penultimate round retreating and absorbing leather from Huerta. Instead he calmly adjusted, shot single punches against the head of Huerta from range and moved effectively away from much of his opponent’s power for the remainder of the fight. On the few occasions that they campaigned on the inside in the 12th and final round, both men cancelled each other out by landing a similar caliber of punch in comparative volume.
All three judges scored the fight in favor of Jauregui by relatively wide margins. Taking the tenth round knockdown into consideration, two of the judges saw fit to give eight rounds to Jauregui whilst the third gave him ten rounds. This is undoubtedly a fair way to see the fight but, given the nature of the contest, one could easily flip the round count without much complaint.
Scores: 115-112; 115-112; 117-111
