The Dream Match finally realized..

Once again, people's champ Manny Pacquiao has proven his superiority inside the ring!

After several months since it was in the news that there will be match between The Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and Pound for pound King of the Ring Manny Pacquiao, finally it concluded yesterday, December 7, 2008 (Philippine setting). This match between two of the most talked about and globally-known sports icons in the recent generation of world boxing is the most anticipated match of the year. According to the news before and what I've researched now, the match is a non-title fight at 147 pound welterweight limit.

Having owned World Titles in 6 different weight divisions and a professional record of 39 wins and 5 losses, De La Hoya had been favored by analysts to win the match. On the other hand, Pacquiao who had just recently won the title in the lightweight division last June of this year against David Diaz and with a professional record of 47 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws was the underdog of the game.

I have never been a fan of boxing since before Manny Pacquiao came into the scene of world boxing. Maybe due to the same happiness that I feel as the other Filipinos everytime a Filipino boxer most especially Pacquiao wins in a match I started to watch a complete match of boxing. If not for Manny winning every match and now branded as the "Mexicutioner," I would have not watched a boxing match from start to end. I also have somehow known the boxing icons who are mostly Pacquiao's contender -- Barrera, Morales and Marquez to name a few and facts about the game like the governing bodies and the weight classifications when I started to be curious about boxing.

Yesterday, I've watched the dream match in the television at TV channel 7 and the night before I had also accidentally tuned the TV to the documentary regarding the dream match shown in GMA-7 so I was able to know facts about the match and how important it is in the boxing history. I was really expecting much about the match because like I've said what are about to bout in the ring are two well-known boxers. Since I'm not that of an avid fan of boxing, I was just waiting for the main event. I wasn't expecting though that when the TV was tuned to Channel 2 I would see in the news flash about the result of the match and I was at first eye-stuck to the teletext waiting for the result of the match. Then, my heart leaped with joy when I found out that Pacquiao won! But I was curious about the match because Pacquiao managed to win on the 8th round and all the while I was expecting that the match would reach the 12th round.

When the main event started to be televised in GMA, I noticed that it wasn't that exciting match after all because it was like a one sided game. It was like even if one doesn't know the point system of boxing, one would know who's winning. It's not that I am ranting about the victory of Pacquiao but I guess the match just did not go with my expectation.

In every round, Pacquiao was doing what he was trained to, like the strategy that he used which I guess they call the "1,2, Punch" and it was even showed in the replay of the highlight of the round how he had successfully done it. He had also thrown his jabs at top speed like what he's been doing before or even did better this time.

While on the other side of the ring, De La Hoya I guess had a hard time doing what he did best in his previous bouts maybe because of not expecting how good Manny is or maybe lack of preparation because what I noticed was he seldom throw jabs to counteract his opponent's attacks. Maybe Pacquiao was just too quick and has great reflexes that was why De La Hoya's offense did not go successfully but I must say it's clear in the last remaining rounds that he had a hard time because he wasn't throwing jabs anymore.

The sports analysts were proven wrong when they said that De La Hoya's advantage of having longer reach of up to 6 inches would be very dangerous for Pacquiao because Pacquiao showed that his speed and enough preparation including the well-analyzed strategies could defeat even the most famous boxer of this generation, Oscar De La Hoya. On the start of the 9th round, De La Hoya gave up the fight and did congratulate Pacquiao for a job well done. It was a win for Pacquiao on the 8th round by TKO! Though the dream match was a little less short of my expectation I'm still glad that Pacquiao won because I would be very much disappointed and would rather not write this blog if he happened to get lost.

And now, many are saying Oscar De La Hoya is the past. It’s Pacquiao’s time now. Mabuhay ang Pilipino!