{"id":430893,"date":"2026-01-24T20:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T20:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430893\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T20:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T20:01:08","slug":"manny-pacquiao-says-hall-of-fame-legend-he-beat-is-his-boxing-idol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430893\/","title":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao says Hall of Fame legend he beat is his boxing idol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manny Pacquiao<\/a> produced a destructive performance, utilising his superior speed, to secure a dominant stoppage victory and force his \u2018idol\u2019 into retirement.<\/p>\n

It was around this time that \u2018Pac Man\u2019 had found himself on a terrific surge, ending his fights with the likes of Ricky Hatton<\/a> and Miguel Cotto<\/a> inside the distance.<\/p>\n

Having already become a seven-division world champion<\/a>, the Filipino would later cement his Hall of Fame status by claiming the WBC title at super-welterweight.<\/p>\n

Even while campaigning at 147lbs, though, Pacquiao was giving up a noticeable size advantage, relying mostly on his speed and technical prowess to emerge triumphant.<\/p>\n

That much was evident during his showdown with Oscar De La Hoya<\/a> who, despite being the bigger man, had drained himself to 145lbs when they collided in 2008.<\/p>\n

Pacquiao, meanwhile, had hit the scales at 142lbs, before engineering a ruthless eighth-round finish that saw De La Hoya\u2019s corner put a stop to the one-sided beatdown<\/a>. The contest was the last time the \u2018Golden Boy\u2019 stepped into the ring.<\/p>\n

Prior to their encounter, De La Hoya had not competed at welterweight since his fifth-round stoppage victory over Arturo Gatti in 2001.<\/p>\n

The American had also suffered defeats to Shane Mosley, Bernard Hopkins and Floyd Mayweather before entering his final professional outing against Pacquiao.<\/p>\n

While exchanging a few words of respect<\/a> after their fight, Pacquiao told De La Hoya that he still views him as a source of inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re still my idol, you\u2019re still my idol, whatever happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, De La Hoya confirmed that the feeling is mutual.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, now you\u2019re my idol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following his victory over De La Hoya, Pacquiao orchestrated a brutal second-round finish over Hatton before claiming the WBO world welterweight title against Cotto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao produced a destructive performance, utilising his superior speed, to secure a dominant stoppage victory and force…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-430893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}