Oscar De La Hoya Close to Finalizing Opponent: Manny Pacquiao

According to Dan Rafael at ESPN, the most possible scenario for The Golden Boy's final fight will be a clash with the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world and new lightweight weight champion, Manny Pacquiao.

Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank's Bob Arum will be holding a meeting in Los Angeles later this coming week to do their best to finalize the super-fight. "I am going to meet with him and if we can work out a deal that is acceptable to Bob, Manny, and to us, then we will get the fight done," Schaefer, Golden Boy's CEO, told ESPN.com. 

This is potentially the biggest fight in boxing in terms of popularity and draw. In one corner you have the always exciting and internationally loved, Many Pacquiao and in the other, the all time leading PPV sales attraction and the most popular fighter in America, The Golden Boy. These fighters arguably have the two deepest fan bases in the sport and will surely attract more than any other possible match-up in boxing (only one close in terms of fans is Hatton).

The talk suggests that the fight will take place at the 147 lbs welterweight limit. Pacquiao, the five divison champ who started his career in the 112 lbs flyweight division, has proved that he doesn't have a problem adding muscle, without losing his core abilities. However, De La Hoya will be cutting weight for the and end up weighing about 157 lbs when he step in the ring. The fairly sizable height and weight disadvantage for Pacquiao will be a major challenge to overcome. 

If De La Hoya was in his prime, we would say Manny might be getting a little too overzealous with the jumping of the weight classes, but since he isn't, there is a good chance he will come out on top.

Weekend Preview: Judah, Clottey, Darchinyan, Direll

Like usual we have to choose between an HBO and Showtime broadcast, although the last couple of times it ended up working out due to the timing.

HBO

Zab Judah (36-5, 25 Ko's) vs. Joshua Clottey (34-2, 20 Ko's) Welterweights

At age 30, Zab Judah is rapidly approaching the latter half of his career. This weekend will most likely be his last shot at headlining major events if he can't find a way to come out victorious. Since putting up a tough showing against Miguel Cotto and suffering an 11th round KO, Judah has handily defeated his last two opponents. He was slated to fight in a PPV event against top 5 ranked Sugar Shane Mosely until he put his arm through a glass door in the shower that caused the cancellation of the bout. Now he has one more shot to prove that he still belongs among the top names of the division. 

His opponent Joshua Clottey is no spring chicken himself, and at age 31, is facing similar circumstances as his counterpart. The difference between the two fighters is that Zab is used to fighting top fighters and competing at a high level - Floyd Mayweather, Kostya Tszyu, Miguel Cotto, Carlos Baldomir, Cory Spinks, and was schedule to fight Shane Mosely. Whereas Clottey has only faced three truly upper echelon fighters in Antonio Margarito, Carlos Baldomir, and Deigo Corrales - only coming out on top in one of the fights (Corrales). 

Clottey is actually favored in the fight, because he hasn't lost since his defeat at the hands of Margarito a few years back. With that said, look for this to be a pretty good (not great) fight - Judah takes a decision.

Showtime

Dimitri Kirilov (29-3-1, 9 Ko's) vs. Vic Darchynian (29-1-1, 23 Ko's) - IBF Junior Bantamweight Title

Vic Daychinian was not so long ago one of the most feared men in boxing. His awkard fighting style and reckless abandon in the ring made him one of the toughest fighters to square off with - that was until he ran into Nonito Donaire's left hook and was knocked cold. Since that fight he hasn't carried the same allure with him, finishing with a decision and a draw in his last two bouts. 

Kirilov is the current title holder, but has not faced too many sound opponents before claiming the vacant belt. He may be in over his head with the cagy Armenian. Look for Darchinyan to make a strong comeback on his first mjor TV appearance since suffering the KO defeat - Darchinyan KO win in under 7 rounds.

Undercard: Andre Dirrell (15-0, 10 Ko's) vs. Mike Paschall

David Haye Still Waits For His Shot

The first time David Haye confronted the current heavyweight champ of the world in front of a sea of media, Wladimir Klitschko calmly replied with a few bits of advice for the former unified cruiserweight champ - Let me take care of my mandatory challengers and you go gain some weight, beat a decent heavyweight or two and then we can talk.

Well it looks like David Haye is taking the advice from the champion that he admittedly highly respects and ranks as a skilled fighter. Haye has bulked himself up to 232 lbs, which is much more than was expected for his heavyweight campaign (see photos). 

"I am eating well, living well and doing some serious training. My body fat is 12 percent and I'm currently in better shape than the majority of the division even at this early stage [of training]," said the Hayemaker. One down, one to go - However, it will remain to be scene whether or not the weight will affect his speed and agility, the traits that have made him so explosive up to this point.

Klitschko has kept his side of the bargain and defeated the mandatory challenger Tony Thomson and David Haye plans to do the same. He has a date set for his first high-scaled showing as a heavyweight (has had one previous heavyweight bout).  London's brand new O2 Arena, with a 20,000 seat capacity will be the location for his bout in which the challenger has yet to be named. Haye promises that the fight will be with a heavyweight ranked in the top 10 and that the opponent will be finalized soon.

What's Next For All you Margaretards Out There?

It would seem that after his career defining victory this past weekend that established him as possibly the top fighter in the division, Antonio Margarito should have his pick of the welterweight divison for his first title defense. But not so fast. With his superhuman performance against one of the best fighters in the world, has he furthered his self-fulfilling prophecy of  his past label as the "most avoided man in boxing"? Who is going to want to get in the ring with this guy after witnessing that? It is possible that he may have just put on such a good performance that, whether he likes it or not, he has laid claim to his former moniker.

However, there is one major difference now than from a few years back, when, as the tale goes, Floyd Mayweather Jr. turned down 8 million dollars to fight The Tijuana Tornado. This time he not only has the top crown in the division, but after proving that he could headline a Pay-Per-View event that created so much buzz and excitement (i.e. $$$$$), he now has the the dollar draw to attract nearly any fighter (no matter how badly they would like to avoid him).

With that said, the victory opens the door to a handful of very interesting fights. The original idea was to have the winner of the fight go on to face the The Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya, in his grand finale on December 6th. But the name that was always talked about for that fight was Cotto, so when Margarito won and looked like a beast doing it, Oscar said no thanks - declaring that he did not want to end his career fighting another Mexican fighter (another way of saying I want to leave the sport, but not on a stretcher). So thats out.

The next possible intriguing match-up would be with Paul The Punisher Williams, the same man who took the title from Antonio one year ago.  One could argue that the 6'1 freak is the best welterweight in the division - his only loss was avenged in the rematch in under 2 minutes and he beat Margarito who beat Cotto. In the first match-up Williams started to fade in the late rounds as Margarito began to pick it it up, but is was a little too late and he ran out of time. The fight ended in a fairly close decision for Williams.

Next, is the most obvious choice, a re-match of the fight of the year candidate against Miguel Cotto. This fight would draw even more attention than the first and would surely be as exciting, if not better. However, it would be surprising if Cotto took this fight directly after that tough loss, especially when he fought great and gave him everything he had, but still couldn't come out on top.

Finally we have The Pretty Boy.  Will the constant repetition of the fact that he turned down a fight for big bucks against Tony draw him out of "retirement"? We know at some point he is going to come back and pull a Sugar Ray Leonard on us, but would this be the best fight to do it? If he came back and soundly beat Margarito, a fighter that looked nearly indestructible and is still hot from that last fight, he would be building a strong case for his top ten all-time pound-for-pound ranking (and we might possibly stop calling him names).

The Cotto-Margarito bout brought something to boxing that was sorely needed - some major buzz from the regular world. There is no doubt in our minds that a match-up with one of these fighters could inevitably duplicate that success.

Toney - Rahman Decision Reversed

James Toney TKO stoppage over Hasim Rahman has been changed to a no contest by the California State Athletic Commission (see what happened).  At least this give us all a little reassurance that boxing isn't as crooked as everyone makes it out to be.  They reviewed the call and overturned it.

Jeff Lacy Comes Out of Retirement!!!!? Lacy-Taylor Back

After sitting and waiting for the perfect opportunity to reinstate himself back into the sport that he so adamantly retired from, Jeff Lacy has decided to come out of retirement - a retirement that lasted all of three and half days.

Lacy went on a rant a few days after his amateur-like close decision victory over Epifanio Mendoza. He was upset when he found out that the $500,000 purse that he was going to receive for his upcoming fight with Jermain Taylor was only increased by $50,000 after his horrible performance. Hoping to get a reaction, he retired. But, it seems no one really cared (including us; see article)

Apparently DiBella must have let him know that if he did well and raised the interest in the Jermain Taylor fight (which there is none of), then they might make the purse a little sweeter for him. But, he didn't so neither did they.

"It's back on," Lacy told the Tampa Tribune. It seems this revelation came about when Golden Boy COO, David Itskowitch said that he had to make a deal with Lacy. "I spoke to Jeff this morning and I asked him what the number was for him to take the fight and he told me and we got it done," said Itskowitch.

Another example of an overrated pre-madonna fighter, who is coming off three horribly close decisions to middle of the road fighters. He does not deserve even $200,000 for the fight, he doesn't even deserve a bout against a top boxer. There is no reason why Taylor shouldn't make an overwhelming comeback against Lacy, an opponent who has been one of the most highly overrated boxers in recent memory.

Pic of the Week: Cotto vs. Margarito

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