Mammoth Blog

Six-time world champion Oscar de la Hoya is set to formally announce Thursday (Friday in Manila) that he will be facing pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao for his farewell fight on December 6, reports said.

A report posted on ESPN.com cited sources about the public announcement, which will signal that weeks of negotiations between the de la Hoya-Pacquiao camps have finally ended.

News about the official announcement was also reported by Los Angeles-based ABC Channel 7.

Rob Fukuzaki, ABC Channel 7's sports anchor reported that official announcements will be forthcoming August 28th before noon in Los Angeles.

Top Rank's Bob Arum, whose company promotes Pacquiao, would not confirm a deal was in place for what would be the year's biggest fight. He, however, confirmed that de La Hoya would host a media teleconference on Thursday to announce his opponent.

"We'll know who he is fighting tomorrow," Arum told ESPN.com. "I made a commitment that I wouldn't say anything and that tomorrow there would be an announcement. I'm not allowed to make any comments. Everything will be clear on Thursday."

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer would also not confirm the deal but reportedly sounded positive when asked about it.

"Last week the deal was 90 percent dead, but we were able to revive it. The fact that it has been so quiet is a good sign," Schaefer said.

De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs), who has repeatedly said that the December 6 fight would be his last bout, has been in talks with the heavy-hitting Pacquiao (47-3-2, 35 KOs) for weeks. Negotiations, however, went downhill when the sides could not come to an agreement on how to split the revenue, which is expected to exceed more than $100 million.

Roach promises 'great fight'

Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach, meanwhile, promised "a great fight" when the Filipino boxing icon battles de La Hoya.

Roach said Pacquiao had called him last night (Wednesday night) and they had "talked for a little while." Roach said Pacquiao told him he's "ready and anxious to do the fight."

Roach said "it's a great fight. A no-brainer anyway. There is no better fight out there."

He added that he would have to "make some adjustments, get some good sparring partners but nothing out of the ordinary."

There were indications from Pacquiao himself that they would have a longer training camp than the usual 7-8 weeks.

Roach noted that Pacquiao was "coming off a good win" against WBC lightweight champion David Diaz and his "confidence is at a high."

Roach said Pacquiao has several pluses on his side - "speed, youth, power. We are stronger, faster. The only advantage the guy (Oscar) has is he's going to be ten pounds heavier than us" when they enter the ring but we have all the other advantages."

The two-time "Trainer of the Year" pointed out that De La Hoya "doesn't fight shorter guys well." He said all Pacquiao has to do is to get close and the reach advantage "goes away quickly."

The biggest thing for Pacquiao, according to Roach, is "getting past his jab" and that he would perfect a counter by the end of training camp.

Roach conceded that in some small way he contributed to getting the fight done because he needled De La Hoya "just a little bit" by his public pronouncements in an interview this reporter and Dennis Principe conducted on the dzSR Sports Radio show "Sports Chat" some time ago. Roach told us then that De La Hoya was slow, couldn't pull the trigger and that Pacquiao would knock him out.

Roach said, "Oscar is a nice guy, but Manny is my guy." -- With a report from Ronnie Nathanielsz Source>>>