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Pacquiao’s southpaw stance blamed for de la Hoya’s loss

By DENNIS GASGONIA, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 01/12/2009 2:13 AM

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Oscar de la Hoya long has had problems about facing southpaws. His recent loss to Manny Pacquiao showed the same story, only this time he fought a heavier puncher, one that nearly humiliated him.

“The confusion with the southpaw style added to the fact that Manny was hitting him flush with that straight left hand took him mentally out of his game,” conditioning coach Robert Garcia told Boxingscene.com's Brent Matteo Alderson.

Garcia has been with de la Hoya’s team since 2001 when the boxing great faced Arturo Gatti at 147 pounds.

“Oscar is a hard guy to get a glove on, he knows how to slip and slide and get out of there, he uses his feet, but because of the southpaw style he wasn’t stalking him (Pacquiao) or retreating the way he normally does because he was confused,” said Garcia.

“From what I hear from Joe Chavez (de la Hoya’s cutman), the left hand that hit him in the first round was so clean he was already dazed,” he added.

Garcia said that de la Hoya has had similar problems when he fought Macho Camacho and Pernell Whitaker.

Another factor being blamed for de la Hoya’s loss was the lack of good sparring partners during his training camp.

“We started camp with Victor Ortiz and he only stayed up there for ten days and for whatever reason he left… Edwin Valero was also sent home and he’s the closest thing you are going to see to Manny Pacquiao,” said Garcia.

The conditioning coach said they ended having two sparring mates: one is a four-round fighter and the other is an eight-rounder.

Beristain vs. Mayweather 

Garcia conceded that Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain, who trained de la Hoya for the Pacquiao fight, is a great boxing trainer.

The conditioning coach, however, thinks that de la Hoya should not have replaced Floyd Mayweather as his trainer.

“Not taking anything away from Nacho, but Nacho hadn’t left Mexico City since 1964 so all of his fighters were groomed by him from day one and that’s a situation where you developed trust over a long period,” said Garcia.

He said de la Hoya and Mayweather has already developed a good boxer-trainer connection and that the change of coaches did not do de la Hoya any good.  

“Mayweather knows how to motivate Oscar. He has taught him the right way to prepare defensively for fights and switching coaches at 35-years-old is not the wisest choice.  If something isn’t broken then don’t try to fix,” said Garcia.