***The Aftermath of DLH-Pacquiao***

• 1. Indications are that the pay-per-view result will be around 1.5 million buys, which is a phenomenal number. It’s a tribute not only to De La Hoya’s ability to sell, but it points out the widespread popularity that Pacquiao has obtained. This guy isn’t popular just among his countrymen in the Philippines.

• 2. If Floyd Mayweather Jr. comes out of retirement to fight Pacquiao next year, he won’t find the going as easy as he may think. Mayweather is outstanding, but so, too, is Pacquiao.

• 3. De La Hoya trainer Nacho Beristain should have stopped the fight at the end of the sixth round. He let the Golden Boy take far too much unneeded punishment. And though Beristain later said he stopped the bout, it was clear De La Hoya himself did it.

• 4. De La Hoya would be foolish to consider another fight, even a so-called farewell fight against an easy opponent. His health isn’t worth it. He looked mediocre against Steve Forbes in May and worse against Pacquiao on Saturday. Boxing is far too dangerous of a sport for someone who has clearly reached the end of the line, as De La Hoya has.

• 5. Former world champion Alexis Arguello was certainly prescient in May, when after De La Hoya’s one-sided (on the scorecard) win over Forbes, he told me in a private interview, “That was a big, significant drop.”

• 6. It was hard to believe Pacquiao is the same guy I watched lose in the same ring back in 2005 to Erik Morales. The work trainer Freddie Roach has done with him is beyond incredible.

• 7. Ricky Hatton is Pacquiao’s likely next opponent. And he’s going to learn very quickly that, “There’s only one Manny Pacquiao.”

• 8. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer and attorney Stephen Espinoza were way out of line Friday when they threatened to pull the credentials of journalists who were listening in during a dispute with the Nevada Athletic Commission over the way De La Hoya’s hands were wrapped. The meeting was held in the media center; if they wanted privacy, there were many places they could have gone that were off-limits to the media and they wouldn’t have looked like bullies. Schaefer was also wrong for telling a Los Angeles Times reporter that if the reporter kept asking questions about undercard fighter Victor Ortiz’s bankruptcy, which led to his signing with Golden Boy, he would get very angry. The crumbling (and toothless) Boxing Writers Association of America should take the matter up, but you can guarantee that won’t occur.

• 9. Saturday’s undercard was so bad, it rivals the Nov. 8 one underneath the Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones Jr. fight in New York as the worst of the year. No matter how good a main event is, the public deserves more than that dreck. And the non-televised fights were about as one-sided.

• 10. One of the shocks of the post-fight Saturday was that no one from HBO felt it necessary to speak publicly. You can rest assured that if De La Hoya had won, one of the many vice presidents in attendance would have been at the microphone speaking.

And with that, it’s time to address your questions and concerns in this week’s reader mailbag. My answers are in italics.

Manny’s future

There can be no more questions on who is the pound-for-pound king right now, but what are the possible fights in Pacquiao’s future? They say Hatton may be next, or maybe be a third war with Juan Manuel Marquez, but what other options are there? Mayweather may come out of retirement, but by the way Floyd ducked decent competition before, I don’t think he will risk his unbeaten record against Pacquiao.