GOMEZ SAYS DE LA HOYA HAS BEEN PROVOKED
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 24 Jul 2008
Golden Boy Promotions vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez, a boyhood friend of Oscar De La Hoya, says that the statements of trainer Freddie Roach that De La Hoya was ?slow, can?t pull the trigger and will be knocked out? by Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao have ?provoked? the Golden Boy.
Gomez told insidesports.ph ?obviously they are calling him out and Oscar was upset at some of the comments that Freddie made and he is being provoked. As a fighter, he wants to be able to defend himself and he?s willing to entertain the fight.?
Gomez said De La Hoya ?doesn?t understand? how Roach who trained him for the megabuck battle with Floyd Mayweather Jr. could make such statements. Gomez revealed De La Hoya feels ?it was kind of disrespectful and if he (Roach) did feel that way he didn?t have to go to the press and say it.?
Roach first made the statements during an interview with Dennis Principe and this reporter on the dzSR Sports radio show ?Sports Chat? hosted by Principe.
Gomez made it clear that De La Hoya understands that everybody is entitled to their opinion but ?he?s provoked by Freddie saying that Manny can do that to him ? knock him out ? so Oscar is willing to prove them wrong.?
However, Gomez conceded ?its not an easy fight? for De La Hoya whose only advantage is that ?he?s bigger. That?s about it.? He noted that Pacquiao ?is in his prime, is probably faster than Oscar right now and Manny has a lot of power. He can really hit. He has been able to take his power all the way up to lightweight and he proved it in his last fight.?
Gomez said Pacquiao fought a legitimate lightweight, David Diaz, and even though Diaz was not in Manny?s level he had fought a lot of guys at 135 and survived the big punches. Manny can be dangerous for Oscar.?
The top executive of Golden Boy Promotions conceded ?it will be a little bit of a struggle? for De La Hoya to come down to 147 pounds and that ?plays into one of Manny?s advantages. It may dry Oscar out and he can be weak.? The last time De La Hoya fought at 147 was against Arturo Gatti in 2001.
At the same time Gomez revealed that De La Hoya doesn?t put on too much weight after the official weight saying he would put on perhaps 8 to 10 pounds at fight time because against Pacquiao he would ?want to be light on his feet and try to compete with the speed of Manny.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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