De la Hoya has all the answers vs Pacquiao

MANILA, Philippines - He has an Olympic gold medal and six world championships.

He has two legendary trainers on his side training for his match coming in five days.

And only on Monday, Oscar de la Hoya also has a seven-foot bronze statue standing in front of the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The Golden Boy has everything. And that mirrors de la Hoya's game plan for Manny Pacquiao in The Dream Match.

Legendary cornerman Angelo Dundee expressed confidence in de la Hoya, saying on the HBO Sports "24/7" television special shown on Monday that de la Hoya has all the bases covered.

"Oscar has all the answers against Manny Pacquiao," Dundee, who has worked the corner of ring legends such as Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, declared.

"It's not the size and the height that will decide the match. The thing that will decide the match is that Oscar is the better fighter," the 87-year-old trainer added.

Long since retired from the sport he fell in love with beginning in the 1940s, Dundee, who was tapped by de la Hoya to be his special trainer for The Dream Match, has studied several of Pacquiao's bouts and then worked with chief trainer Nacho Beristain for a few weeks in early November at de la Hoya's Big Bear camp in California.

"I noticed [Marvin] Hagler, as great a fighter as he was, had to step before he punched," Dundee said in an Associated Press report in the weekend. "Now this kid Pacquiao does that same thing. Oscar will tear him to pieces if he does that."

"Ever since Angelo has been here, there's a new energy floating in the air, you know?" de la Hoya said.

"The fact that we have a legend in the sport of boxing here in the gym ... it's like a breath of fresh air having Angelo. The stories that he tells you, the Sugar Ray Leonard days, the Ali days and the little tricks up his sleeves."

Never in my wildest dreams
Meanwhile, de la Hoya unveiled an imposing bronze statue of his on Monday in front of the Staples Center during a special afternoon ceremony.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be here with a statue of me," de la Hoya, an American with Mexican descent who grew up in East Los Angeles, said.

He became the third sports hero from Los Angeles to be given a tribute after basketball superstar Magic Johnson and hockey great Wayne Gretzky. - GMANews.TV

Source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/137071/De-la-Hoya-has-all-the-answers-vs-Pacquiao

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