Friend of our site


MMA Headlines


UFC HP


Bleacher Report


MMA Fighting


MMA Torch


MMA Weekly


Sherdog (News)


Sherdog (Articles)


Liver Kick


MMA Junkie


MMA Mania


MMA Ratings


Rating Fights


Yahoo MMA Blog


MMA Betting


Search this site



Latest Articles


News Corner


MMA Rising


Audio Corner


Oddscast


Sherdog Radio


Video Corner


Fight Hub


Special thanks to...

Link Rolodex

Site Index


To access our list of posting topics and archives, click here.

Friend of our site


Buy and sell MMA photos at MMA Prints

Site feedback


Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

Beat up Oscar De La Hoya and you, too, can get your own parade

By Zach Arnold | December 9, 2008

Print Friendly and PDF

If your name is Manny Pacquiao, that is:

President Arroyo will designate Pacquiao the country’s new Ambassador of Peace when she receives him in Malacañang this morning, in appreciation of the honor and inspiration he has brought anew to the Filipino people.

Pacquiao will be fetched by Secretary Lito Atienza of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) at the Centennial Terminal of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) when he arrives at 4:30 a.m. on Philippine Airlines flight PR 103.

Pacquiao attributed his success to a higher power:

In a short speech before the crowd, Pacquiao recalled how some people told him that he had a “big problem” with De la Hoya.

But Pacquiao said that while he had a big problem, he assured them that there was a “bigger God who was much better.”

Speaking in Filipino, Pacquiao said, “Sabi nila malaki ang problema ko, pero sabi ko malaki nga ang problema ko, pero may Panginoon naman na napakagaling.”

But Pacquiao said he had this to say to those who didn’t believe him, “Don’t tell God I have a big problem, but face your problem because we have a big God.”

Pacquiao says he is thinking about things in life outside of boxing. Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about last Saturday’s fight. My favorite headline: MILF laughs off idea of Pacquiao as peace envoy.

Meanwhile, Oscar De La Hoya is going to take some time off and go back home to Puerto Rico. Steroid offender James Toney says De La Hoya can’t retire.

Topics: Boxing, Media, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

14 Responses to “Beat up Oscar De La Hoya and you, too, can get your own parade”

  1. Chuck says:

    You know? I was excited reading a headline that said “MILF laughs off…” but it isn’t my kind of MILF. Just Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

    These articles prove that Pacquiao is easily the biggest celebrity in the Philippines in decades.

  2. Fluyid says:

    Pacquiao is one good dude.

  3. samscaff says:

    First of all, Manny Pacquiao has BEEN the biggest celebrity in the Phillipines for decades for at least 3-4 years.

    Second of all, he has gotten parades for the past 3-4 years as well. Its not just because he beat DLH.

  4. Chuck says:

    “First of all, Manny Pacquiao has BEEN the biggest celebrity in the Phillipines for decades for at least 3-4 years.

    Second of all, he has gotten parades for the past 3-4 years as well. Its not just because he beat DLH.”

    I know all of this for a fact. He has been in many Philippine movies, and is an absolute DARLING in Philippines. He has a mansion and has basically a small army looking over the place 24/7 (because it’s a REALLY bad area with terrorist and guerrilla activity). These articles just completely solidify the fact even further.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    1.5 Million Buys

  6. Fluyid says:

    Kevin Iole:

    “Indications are that the pay-per-view result will be around 1.5 million buys, which is a phenomenal number. It’s a tribute not only to De La Hoya’s ability to sell, but it points out the widespread popularity that Pacquiao has obtained. This guy isn’t popular just among his countrymen in the Philippines.”

    The L.A. Times:

    “HBO pay-per-view just announced that Saturday’s welterweight bout between Manny Pacquiao and Oscar De La Hoya attracted 1.25 million customers at $54.95 a purchase, falling far short of De La Hoya’s record bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year (2.4 million buys) but still standing as the biggest draw of 2008 and marking just the fourth non-heavyweight bout to have more than 1 million buys.

    The fight generated more than $70 million in pay-per-view revenue, HBO announced, and the bout’s live gate at MGM Grand surpassed $17 million, promoters said.”

  7. Jargon says:

    That’s not surprising that they’d give a political position to Pacquiao just because he won a fight. They practically give political offices to totally unqualified individuals just based on their popularity. Hell, half their politicians are actors/actresses/comedians, who have not a clue how to help the people instead of powering their own celebrity. And the corruption, well, that’s a whole other ball game…

  8. The Gaijin says:

    In other news – apparently Meltzer is going to be breaking the news story that UFC 91 broke the 1 million buy mark.

    I will be the first to admit, I am both completely amazed and stand corrected!

  9. Ivan Trembow says:

    Gaijin— As Meltzer notes in the story, the UFC was also saying “one million buys” to anyone who would listen (and print it) after Jackson-Liddell. That ended up drawing 675,000 buys.

  10. Jim Allcorn says:

    Oscar’s PPV was a pretty solid success with somewhere between 1.25 – 1.5 million buys. Which is good for Golden Boy, but it might just be their last big hurrah.
    With Oscar totally shot now & his fighting days over, that combined with the horrible aftertaste that Saturday night’s overpriced card left in many, many of it’s buyer’s mouths, I just don’t see there being many successful boxing PPVs in 2009 & beyond.

    Just like Joe Calzaghe stated earlier today, the vast majority of the sport’s biggest stars are at the end of their ropes now & they haven’t been replaced in the general public’s eye. Add to that the proliferation of “world” titles & weight classes that’s been a problem for decades now & for the first time in my 32 years as a hardcore fan, I have to admit that the future looks murky at best.

    It’ll never die, but it could be further marginalized where it could be insignificant in the US within the next several years.

  11. Ivan Trembow says:

    It’s amazing from a “controlling the message” standpoint how we’ve gone from one little UFC leak to one person that it drew 1,010,000 buys, and it’s a leak from the same MMA promotion that blatantly lied about the Jackson-Liddell buyrate, which they overstated by over 300,000 buys, and instead of any of that being mentioned in the numerous news stories that have picked up that story, it’s just being reported as, “Yup, it drew one million buys.” It could end up being that it actually did draw one million buys, or it could be that the UFC is grossly overstating it just like they did with Jackson-Liddell. But it shows how effective the UFC is in controlling the story that it’s now out there that the show drew one million buys as if it’s a fact.

  12. liger05 says:

    Joe Calzaghe is an idiot. He talks about “real champions” and “too many belts”, yet he milked his crappy WBO belt for 9 years and wasn’t considered a “real champion” until he fought Lacy. Talk about a hypocrite. This is a guy who eventually went to fight in the states to fight a 42 year old Hopkins and a totally shot 39 year old Roy Jones. Hypocrite!!!

  13. Jim Allcorn says:

    liger05,
    Oh c’mon now!
    Would it have been much more satisfying had Calzaghe gotten to fight Hopkins & RJJ five years ago rather than this year? Certainly.

    But boxing politics being what it is, that didn’t happen. But at the end of the day, he was finally able to meet his contemporaries. Something he’d strived to accomplish for years.

    And, it’s not as he he was a young man “picking on” a couple of old men. He’s getting up there in years as well & as demonstrated by his shut out victory over Kelly Pavlick, Hopkins is anything but a shot fighter.

  14. dave2 says:

    Calzaghe is so impressive that it can be easy to forget that he’s really 36. And he is a true world champion now. Was at super middleweight after beating Lacy and then at light heavyweight after beating Hopkins (though his fight with Hopkins was very close. It could go either way). Calzaghe’s legacy would have been much greater if he beat Hopkins and RJJ when they were at their best though.

Comments

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-spam image