Oscar De La Hoya

Boxing fans are on edge these days, not unlike your 6-year-old in the back seat on a long trip. "How many more miles, Daddy? Are we there yet?" Actually, we are four days from Oscar De La Hoya versus Manny Pacquiao and several years from knowing how the sport will weather the immediate future against the competitive onslaught of mixed martial arts. De La Hoya-Pacquiao will be a good gauge.

A third statue was unveiled outside Staples Center on Monday, joining the likenesses of Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky, and you'll never guess who. Jerry West? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Chick Hearn? Think again. Think of an athlete who is not affiliated with any Staples Center team. Think of an athlete who competed in the building just once, where he was punched 284 times in a loss. Think of an athlete who is preparing for a Saturday night competition in which he will probably get pounded again.

If Oscar De La Hoya beats Manny Pacquiao -- now considered the world's top pound-for-pound fighter -- Saturday it would certainly cement De La Hoya's legacy. But the 35-year-old De La Hoya admitted Wednesday how tenuous his future is as a boxer. "Obviously, if I lose, it's over for me," De La Hoya said at a news conference at the MGM Grand. "I'm not going to start trying to go back up that mountain again, just to get back to where I am now.

A dispute over how Oscar De La Hoya wraps his hands for a fight grew contentious Friday before the Nevada State Athletic Commission said his taping method can effectively remain status quo. De La Hoya's tape man, Joe Chavez, uses two-inch-wide brown medical tape around his fighter's hands and then rolls up the tape between the fingers to help cushion what the De La Hoya camp describes as sensitive hands.

Oscar De La Hoya is a movie star with wrinkles. He is ready for another close-up, but not before he spends some extended time in makeup. He is boxing's Clint Eastwood. He is to be respected, even revered. Like Eastwood, when De La Hoya is gone from the stage, which is certainly soon, he will remain a key figure. Eastwood directs and produces marvelous movies. De La Hoya will produce and direct marvelous boxers and boxing shows, from his perch as president of Golden Boy Promotions.

In the discussions that helped script Oscar De La Hoya's path from the star of the 1992 Olympic Games to his current role as the greatest draw in boxing pay-per-view history, one voice was listened to most of all. Matchmaker Bruce Trampler was the one who determined when the "Golden Boy" was prepared to vanquish young, skilled fighters such as Rafael Ruelas and when he could handle veterans such as Mexican warrior Julio Cesar Chavez in 1996 and polished southpaw Pernell Whitaker a year later.

Oscar De La Hoya is going to defeat Manny Pacquiao, and probably by a knockout. Make it the ninth round. As I've thought about this fight since I visited both fighters a month ago at their Southern California training camps, several factors continue pointing to the outcome being a "real" version of what fans saw at Staples Center this week, when De La Hoya emulated his new statue's pose by raising his arms in victory. First, he's too big. Second, Pacquiao took this fight mostly for money.

As strong and fit as Oscar De La Hoya touted himself in the weeks leading into his Saturday night fight against the younger, faster, fitter Manny Pacquiao, I can't help thinking now about something the Golden Boy said after a strenuous workout. "I have a new best friend," Oscar told me one month ago. "Ice." And he'll need to load up on the stuff today as he recovers from a one-sided beatdown handed him by boxing's best fighter, pound-for-pound, in the world.

On a stunning Saturday night in Las Vegas, you could almost hear the 90 million people on those Pacific Islands thousands of miles to the West, screaming in delight. Their guy, Manny Pacquiao, the pride of the Philippines, had just beaten Oscar De La Hoya. Not just beaten him, destroyed him. Humiliated him. Sent him into retirement. Pacquiao's victory had ended an era in boxing that spanned more than 10 years and was the personal domain of a great boxer known as the Golden Boy. No mas.

Oscar De La Hoya officially moved past the nagging thoughts of hiring the father of his opponent to train for the "fight of his life," announcing Tuesday that he was aligning with trainer Freddie Roach. Less than a week after De La Hoya opted not to retain trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. for his fight against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr.