Three of De la Hoya’s five losses came at the MGM: against Mayweather last year, Bernard Hopkins in 2004, and Shane Mosley in 2003, but he said it’s a thing of the past. But it’s also where he beat Ricardo Mayorga, Arturo Gatti, Felix Strum and Javier Castillejo.

“We’ve had a lot of good memories and a lot of bad memories but at the end of the day we’ve had a lot of fun here at the MGM. This is gonna be a fight everything everybody has wished for. It’s gonna be fun, have a good time that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

He said Pacquiao won’t have as much difficulty with his new weight as some people think.

“Manny Pacquiao can handle the weight gain because of his power and his speed. He’s not the slowest fighter out there. He’s probably the fastest fighter out there. A Manny Pacquiao who’s going to jump up 10 pounds, 20 pounds or 30 pounds is still a fast Manny Pacquiao so I think it’s not going to affect him that much the way it affected me because I jumped up six weight classes and by the sixth one, it was tough.”

On the other side of the fence, Roach is being pitted against Nacho Beristain, the trainer of Marquez, and the legendary Angelo Dundee who trained fighters like Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard.

The 87-year-old Dundee came in as a last-minute addition to Team De la Hoya.

“I didn’t know these two guys but I enjoyed watching them,” he said of Pacquiao and De la Hoya. “But I’ve been doing some homework. I have a good angle on Pacquiao now but I’ve a better angle on De la Hoya,” he said.

“I didn’t know this guy works so hard. He gets a big kick out of the gym when fighters don’t want to go there because they know they’re gonna work. But Oscar loves it.

“But I told him, ‘Please do me a favor. Don’t leave all the work in the gymnasium we have to save it for the night of the fight,” he added.

“No doubt Oscar de la Hoya is a great fighter and he’s a hundred percent. He’s got an unbreakable face, unbreakable discipline. That made him ready for this fight,” said Beristain, still searching for his first win over Pacquiao.

source: http://www.philstar.com

Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz bagged a split decision verdict from the judges over Michael “The Great” Katsidis.” One of the judges saw the bout 115-113 for Katsidis, while two judges considered Diaz to have shown superior skills by 113-115 and 112-115.

The fight was a thrilling one featured by non-stop exchanges. Though Katsidis gave the more powerful punches, the former three-belted champion from Houston, Texas proved his mettle by releasing voluminous punches which neutralized the aggresiveness of the Australian slugger. No knockdown was noted in the bout but it was an exciting fight between two great warriors in the ring.

The Baby Bull improved his record to 33 wins, 1 loss with 17 knockouts, while Katsidis suffered his second loss (23-2-20) after tasting the first beating from Casamayor.

The lightweight division, where Diaz and Katsidis fought, is an interesting division featured by the best boxers in the planet such as Pacquiao, Marquez, Casamayor, Campbell, Khan, to name a few.

On the same event, Juarez won by knockout in the 11th round over Jorge Barrios on what can be considered as a sudden twist of fate. Barrios appeared to be ahead in the scorecards but a flurries of exchange blew it off when Juarez bombarded Barrios with solid shots in the chin which caused the Argentine boxer to kiss the canvas, bleeding profusely on his mouth. The referee stopped the fight at the middle of the penultimate round.

It’s official!

The dream fight between the boxing’s golden boy and the pound for pound king has turned into a reality. On the day of December 06, 2008, another mega fight event in the world of boxing will unfold— a great history in the making.

Pound for pound king Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao was chosen to be the dancing partner in the ring by Oscar “the Golden Boy” Dela Hoya on what is to be considered to be one of the greatest fights of the millennium.

The much-talked about fight between the two most popular fighters in the world today will happen at the welterweight class (147 pounds). Currently considered as the best fighter in the planet, Pacquiao, a lightweight slugger, will be expected to gain at least 15 pounds comes fight night while dela Hoya is expected to go down in weight by at least 20 pounds from its usual junior middleweight division.

The clash of the two boxers will surely catch the attention of the boxing community as it promises to be a fight of two true-blooded warriors in the ring. Pacquiao, a holder of five championship belts, started in the ring as a flyweight and last fought as a lightweight when he inflicted a brutal knockout in round 9 again David Diaz to wrest the WBC lightweight belt; whereas dela Hoya, a six-time world champion last fought as a superwelterweight against Steve Forbes on what is to be regarded as a not-so-exciting bout of the boxing’s most charismatic figure.

Freddie Roach, Pacman’s trainer, and the rest of the camp of Pacquiao are confident that the Filipino sensation can defeat dela Hoya. As for dela Hoya, the fight for him has a become a personal thing, saying in one of the interviews that he is going to avenge the defeats suffered by the best of the Mexican boxers against the hands of Pacquiao.

This is the bout the world is waiting for. Should Pacquiao succeed, he would attain the feat achieved by Armstrong, a famous boxer some decades ago.

So let’s get it on!