Formerly respected columnist Dan Rafael continues to slurp Hoya

"How come the folks so annoyed that Oscar De La Hoya is fighting a smaller opponent in Manny Pacquiao weren't nearly as vocal when Bernard Hopkins, then a dominant middleweight champion, opted to face the much smaller De La Hoya? (By the way, that fight turned out quite competitive.) De La Hoya could face Israel Vazquez for all I care. De La Hoya has fought everybody during his career -- bigger, smaller and the same size. If you don't like the Pacquiao fight don't buy it."

This guy is really getting annoying with this Oscar love fest he has going on. I wonder how much Hoya is paying him? Rafael has almost no journalistic integrity left. It's a shame ESPN continues to employ this hack.

 

Would you call him an OscarSexual BigReg?

 

He's telling the truth though, DLH was in the same position before when he fought Hopkins and people were all over it. If people don't like this fight then there are WAY more fights coming up to pay attention to instead.

 

Rafael is a Golden Boy and DiBella shill. It is pathetic.

 

This situation is much different than the Hopkins/Hoya fight. Furthermore, Rafael is turning into a Hoya cheerleader. It's getting pathetic.

 

What that guy wrote sounds reasonable to me, he has a good point.

 

You're letting your Oscar hate blind you. If you actually read his stuff regularly, you'd see that he dishes out a fair amount of hate as well, and he doesn't hold back from any promoter in particular. Yes, he reports more info from the biggest promoters, but that's because they have the best media liaisons.

 

Number 1, I don't hate Hoya. Number 2, I read Rafael's columns all the time. His Oscar cheerleading has become increasingly evident. Check out his p4p rankings, he has Oscar at 13.

 

It is different but can be compared in terms of being a dangerous one. Rafael can cheerlead all he wants, if people don't don't like the fight then don't buy it and case is closed.

 

He didn't state the obvious. He used a terrible example in order to further his Hoya slurping campaign.

 

I just like to know why the example is terrible?
Thanks

 

:smh :asskiss

 

He's comparing this fight to the Hopkins/Hoya fight. When Hopkins fought Hoya, Hoya had been fighting at 154 for years. He even fought a title fight at 160 the fight before the Hopkins fight. Also, their fight was at a catch weight of 158 lbs. and both weighed in at 156(Hoya was actually 155). So in that fight, Hoya went up a whopping 2 lbs. from where he had been fighting for the previous few years and actually went down 4 lbs. from his previous fight.

In the Hoya/Pac fight, Pac will be going up 17 lbs. from where he has been fighting for the past few years and up 12 lbs. from his last fight. The two situations are almost nothing alike.

 

On paper that is right but in reality it isn't.

Pac walks around at about 145 and came into the ring agasint Diaz at this weight. He will come into the ring with DLH weighing around this weight so he is actually fighting at his normal, everyday, walk around weight. This will be to his benefit as he will not have to dry himself out to make weight.

 

What was Hopkins weight on fight night?