Manny Pacquiao's Top 5 Greatest Matches: Battle of Legends

Manny's Top 5 Greatest Matches Pacquiao: A battle of legends

The dream match against Oscar De La Oya

Filipino Manny Pacquiao is one of the world's boxing sensations. "PacMan" has achieved a number of famous successes that even make his fans and some specialists consider him one of the greatest of all time, regardless of the categories in which he competes. His matches arouse huge interest from the supporters of this sport, and some of them will forever remain in the annals as extremely significant and exciting. In five parts, we will bring you the best five bouts of the boxer from the Philippines. In the first part, in fifth place, we put his meeting with Ricky Hatton, which earns him equaling Oscar De La Oya's record of six titles in six different divisions.

In this second part we will talk specifically about the match preceding the one with Hatton, the clash with the "Golden Boy" from Los Angeles. Taller, slightly heavier, in his prime, Oscar De La Oya is determined to beat Pacquiao to give himself a 2008 Christmas present. The arena for the fight played on December 6th is the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Almost home territory for De La Oya. However, this does not give an advantage to the champion with more titles.

Although there is no title at stake in the match, the two boxers are definitely the best in their category, are in top form and argue for the recognition of experts and fans who is better at the moment. Before the start of the meeting, Pacquiao was number 1 in the world according to Ring magazine, a holder of titles in 5 different divisions and the World Boxing Council lightweight champion. De La Oya, winner of 10 championship belts in six different categories, Olympic gold medalist at the Barcelona Games in 1992 and with only 5 losses in 44 matches. It remains only in a direct match to decide who is better at the moment.

In the first round, De La Oya started more aggressively, but his punches missed the mark. Instead, Pacquiao lands a nice left straight followed by a great combination. By the end of the part, the two exchange a few more hits. At the start of round number two hooks in a row caused Pacquiao to back off slightly to avoid one of two good but expected combinations from the American. Then comes PacMan's response, which is extremely successful and even makes his opponent blush. In the third and fourth rounds, De La Oya had no answer for the combinations the Filipino offered in the ring.

Manny's successful two legs give him added confidence as he heads into round five. Still, De La Oya manages to respond to the heavy hitting he receives with several body shots and two hooks. The next round begins with the two exchanging punches, with Pacquiao taking a slight advantage, landing a good left hook, followed by a right straight and four more punch combinations at the end of the round. In the seventh round, the supremacy of the Filipino is already visible, as he avoids a hook from De La Oya and very quickly responds with a good combination that caused the American to shake. An uppercut miss from the 6-time title holder follows, and Pac-Man takes advantage of that and manages to land quite a few hooks.

In the eighth round, Pacquiao surprisingly starts looking for low shots to the opponent's body, which he was warned about, but De La Oya just doesn't have the strength. While he manages to land a nice right hand, he can't defend against another good combination followed by a left hand that rocks the Mexican-American. A few more combinations follow, some of them in the body of De La Oya, and the round ends with a visible advantage for Pacquiao.

After this part, the match was stopped and a TKO victory was awarded to the boxer from the Philippines. Two of the judges indicated that he had won every single round, and the third still gave a split in De La Oya's favor. Pacquiao's emphatic success, and eight rounds at that, means even better times are ahead for him. Times that put him on top of the boxing world, but more on that in the next three parts.