DE LA HOYA OFFERS TO BE AT PACQUIAO’S SIDE FOR MORALES FIGHT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 05 Nov 2006
The great Oscar De La Hoya says he wants to be at the side of Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao when he battles legendary Mexican Erik “El Terrible” Morales in their Grand Finale rubber match at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on November 18.
De La Hoya called this reporter from his home in Puerto Rico over the weekend to inform Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today about the developments concerning Filipino super featherweight champion Jimrex Jaca who arrived in the US and began training at De La Hoya’s gym in Los Angeles last Saturday (Manila Time).
De La Hoya said Jaca’s scheduled featherweight title fight against champion Juan Manuel Marquez will push through as scheduled on November 25 despite claims by Jaca’s manager Rex “Wakee” Salud that the fight was off because he had committed
to have Jaca fight on the Pacquiao-Morales undercard.
De La Hoya said Jaca was “very excited about fighting Marquez because this is a tremendous opportunity. He is making great money fighting Marquez on HBO After Dark.“ He said Golden Boy Promotions vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez was “making sure that he (Jaca) has all the sparring partners and making sure that he will be one hundred percent when he faces Marquez.” He revealed that Jaca, according to Gomez, “was looking really good, is ready and is training.”
De La Hoya underscored the principles under which they work at Golden Boy saying, “we are very straightforward, we are very organized, we stand up for our fighters and work behind our fighters one hundred percent. We are really excited and happy
to be working with Jaca because he just signed a deal with us for three fights. Jaca is a really good fighter and this is his great opportunity to really do something here in the States and we offered him good money. He is extremely happy and is very motivated.”
De La Hoya said he was “confused” by the actions of Salud and couldn’t understand why Salud would take Jaca and put him on a Top Rank show and pay him less money” pointing out that Golden Boy was giving Jaca a world title shot where he would make a lot of money.”
De La Hoya said he would ask Pacquiao “whether he wants me by his side on November 18 for support because I think that will give him (Pacquiao) more motivation.”
De La Hoya said he would speak to Pacquiao and tell him he would be “more than happy to be there supporting him.” De La Hoya said Pacquiao was doing very well in his preparation under celebrated trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym and was “very focused.”
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