THE PACMAN OR THE GOLDEN BOY ? WHO WOULD PULL OFF A ?SUGAR RAY? ACT?
By Salvador Lopez
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 03 Oct 2008
When Sugar Ray Leonard fought Donny ?Golden Boy? Lalonde two decades ago in their ?Power and Glory? encounter, he had to put on extra weight to be able to challenge for Lalonde?s WBC light-heavyweight title even as both were also fighting for the vacant WBC middleweight title. For the fight, Leonard came in at 165 lbs., more than 20 lbs. higher than when he began his professional career. Lalonde, nicknamed the ?Golden Boy? (not much of his ring exploits even though an outstanding one, but after the Golden Boy statue atop the Manitoba Legislative Building in the city where he grew up) weighed in at 167 lbs., seven lbs. below his normal fighting weight of 174 lbs. A bit weakened by the reduction in weight, he agreed nevertheless to fight at the contracted weight at the lure of money fighting one of the sports real superstars. Reports said that he got $5M in that fight which he later invested wisely as a successful businessman.
The fight itself, was one for the record-books. Imposing his enormous size advantage, Lalonde immediately went after Leonard and with a clubbing right cross knocked the latter down right in the very first round. I actually thought that the original Golden Boy (whom I was rooting for in that fight!) would finished off his legendary opponent quickly and I would be happy. Size and power appeared to be gaining momentum in the first half of the fight as Lalonde?s wicked shots were finding their mark in Leonard?s body, most particularly in the fourth round where he had Leonard in serious trouble once again. However, fatigue seemed to have caught Lalonde beginning the second half of the fight and faded in the remaining rounds. He thus allowed himself to be a slow-moving target of the rejuvenated Sugar Ray who was then unleashing his patented hand speed with mean intentions. This one of the greatest fights in boxing history came to an end when Sugar Ray viciously dropped the Golden Boy for the second time following the first knockdown from a Leonard?s flurry of punches that had Lalonde still wobbly when he stood up that the referee could just stopped the fight at that moment. These came after Lalonde own flurry had Leonard backing up in a thrilling 9th round.
The above fight resulted in a triumph of the smaller man against the bigger man, a victory of speed over power. Needless to say, it was also a case of an older man, an ageing champion, winning against another champion still in his prime.
Could the above fight that happened 20 years ago be a fitting prelude to the upcoming ?Dream Match? between the Pacman Manny Pacquiao against the more illustrious Golden Boy Oscar de la Hoya. Would the Pacman do a Sugar Ray act by defeating his larger opponent in the Golden Boy or would the latter do otherwise by vanquishing his younger opponent who is currently enjoying the prime of his career? Well, this might perhaps open up another area of debate and controversy in addition to the already existing one, that of whether Manny is allowed to fight Oscar supposedly due to the size disparity. Nonetheless, a comparison of the circumstances between the previously described fight and the upcoming fight appears to be inevitable. The list of things for comparison may go on forever but here are some key things:
- When Manny fights the current Golden Boy, he will be fighting at 147 lbs., 30 lbs. more than the weight at which he started his professional career. Sugar Ray fought the original Golden Boy weighing 24 lbs. more than when he started his career.
- Ever since his fight with Arturo Gatti back in 2001, the new Golden Boy Oscar de la Hoya has been fighting mostly at 154 lbs., hence, his going down to 147 lbs. meant a reduction of 7 pounds, the same weight the original Golden Boy Lalonde had to lose when he fought Sugar Ray Leonard.
- Lalonde lost his grip in the fight because he faded in the latter rounds. De la Hoya has a tendency to fade in the championship rounds as seen in his fights with Mayweather, Trinidad, and even with Forbes.
- If the above things of comparison favor the Pacman, there is one thing which credits the Golden Boy: Sugar Ray had already reached the peak of his career when he fought Lalonde and was already fighting rare at that time, taking new challenges that may come. De La Hoya, in the same manner, comes out of oblivion once in a while if he sees a challenge coming in. Will this mean then that Oscar will pull off the trigger and defeat Manny by replicating Sugar Ray?s comeback act? An interesting question which answer many people would like to know, Freddy Roach, I believe, included.
Some pundits may argue that the current Golden Boy Oscar de la Hoya is way more skillful than the original Golden Boy Donny Lalonde and the former fought many of the best boxers in this generation whilst Lalonde fought relatively unknown guys. But watching the fight against Leonard, Lalonde (who was also known as a one-arm bandit because his power came from only one hand ? is right hand) was actually a good boxer (and I believe, Sugar Ray would attest to this fact) and was in his prime when he fought Leonard. Hence, a slightly worn-out Oscar de la Hoya may only be just as skillful boxer as a Donny Lalonde in his prime. Incidentally, it appears that a Manny Pacquiao at a stage fighting an Oscar de la Hoya is on a higher peak curve than a Sugar Ray Leonard at a stage fighting a Donny Boy Lalonde
If ever the fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Donny ?Golden Boy? Lalonde be in any way used as a means of comparison, things appear to go in Pacman?s way. That is unless the Golden Boy can still pull the trigger and reverses the tide of things.
So who between the two do you think would pull off a Sugar Ray act? We?ll wait till December 6.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Salvador Lopez.
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