Both trainers for the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya fight last weekend have now (warning: obvious pun ahead) “weighed in” on De La Hoya’s weight for the match.
Asked in the above video when he knew Pacquiao would win, trainer Freddie Roach answered (video h/t: Boxing FanHouse): “Before the fight started. When he gained two pounds [from 145 to 147] between the weigh-in and fight time.” In an earlier point in the interview, Roach said: “I saw the IV in his arm, I saw the IV marks, it was fresh tape, they hydrated him too late, they waited too long to hydrate him. It was nothing illegal… The thing was, they couldn’t get anything into his system… Nobody let him build his body back up. They did it to themselves.”
Nacho Beristain, De La Hoya’s trainer, disagreed, telling ESTO (via BoxingScene): “This was a fight that should have been won. Oscar was able achieved a great physical condition during his training. I am a witness that he did not have problems with his weight and he was not dried out from the vapors [of a sauna]. During that time he had a nutritionist by his side who took charge of his weight and diet. But at the time of the fight he couldn’t do things well. He couldn’t deal with the versatility of Pacquiao.”
The only thing Beristain said that I support was that De La Hoya couldn’t deal with the versatility of Pacquiao. Roach is right: Taking nothing away from Pacquiao, the weight killed De La Hoya that night. What’s more, Roach said, upon seeing De La Hoya run at the same track Pacquiao ran at, that De La Hoya’s face was drawn and he had trouble getting around the track because of weight. He also said De La Hoya’s nutritionist failed him; that he thought De La Hoya was trying to prove a point by coming in at a lower number than Pacquiao; and that following the fight, he got reports from doctors that De La Hoya was dehydrated both before and after. Oh, how I wish I’d listened to myself when it came prediction time…
