By Patrick Kehoe (photo by Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages)

Oscar De La Hoya fighting Manny Pacquiao has brought out almost every kind of analysis, warning, celebratory cliché, bombastic flourish, shading of cultural commentary and insider tripe, just as all truly mega boxing fights inevitably do.

Though, at the heart of the matter – a prizefight of perplexing possibility – uncertainly over the match-up irritates some and confounds others. But by all means, consume the printed word, surf and scan the virtual tide of prefight pronouncements across the Web.

Over load, stuffing oneself with information, gossip, disinformation and expert point-counter pointing remains central to the fullest possible enjoyment of the big fights; for great fights do act upon ones nerves, mind, heart, imagination and pocketbook, in each personalized case, according to the passion we indulge, the heroism we imagine, the theatre of ethnic identification for which we live.

Can mighty Manny Pacquiao truly defy what seems to be the limit of biological inheritance? Does Oscar De La Hoya, rich beyond accounting at 35, really fight from absolute need to dominate in the ring, second to second, against the very best, like his business partner Bernard Hopkins? Will the fight come down to a study of providence in two parts, as Manny Pacquiao’s trainer, a former trainer of De La Hoya, Freddie Roach prophesized: De La Hoya early, Pacquiao late?

Without questions where would we draw the lines for contentious debate; especially, since it doesn’t really matter who wins, unless you are from the Philippines or an employee of Golden Boy Enterprises and its myriad of subsidiaries and partners. Epic encounters can be cotton candy for the starving masses as much as historically digestive fare for the connoisseur. Since his second defeat to Shane Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya fights to perform for an adoring world, where once he performed feats of fighting brilliance on his way to a destiny made in his own image. While Manny Pacquiao, strains to remain a talisman, a living symbol of the indomitable spirit of man to the people in his country and where ever humanity toils against the crushing weight of economic destitution and political insignificance.

And yet we can admit that boxing often endorses fraud – a hyped fight of dubious quality for sale as an authentic, symbolic mega event – and yet, in this fight, of un-equals, perhaps we have a balance of vulnerabilities: past prime vs. prime with size challenging speed, power pitted against endurance and experience supreme staring down unflinching resolve. We can see the categories, how the fault lines curiously line up, with De La Hoya not completely secure over the distance and Pacquiao susceptible at any time. Call it a clash of generations, styles, ethnicities, temperaments, world views, if you need to; perhaps, the fight itself will surprise the skeptics, partisans and neutrals alike.

Now that would be food for the thoughtful.

We need note in passing that De La Hoya vs. Pacquiao must also be a fight of extremities. Pacquiao giving up 4” in height and 6” in reach to earn a sultan’s ransom against Oscar De La Hoya, Inc, completely understandable this risk. Here we must remember Pacquiao having so often having been fleeced of his hard earned millions over the years, by both promotional and managerial entities. Of course, Pacquiao also tends to give away money at the drop of a hat. And we note that the Philippines super star began below jr. flyweight – 107 lbs. – having fought the last five years of his championship career between 126 and 130lbs., except for his last outing, at lightweight, a 135lbs. title winning destruction of Chicago’s David Diaz.

Interestingly, Freddie Roach contends the manner of the fight between the diminutive Pacquiao and the man who’s legacy was built on destroying talented small man with boxing titles, Oscar De La Hoya, will come down to “Manny wearing Oscar down.” File that away under probable cause.

Then we consider that most championship boxing matches are resolved either by tactical advantage seized or victory determined at the heart of absolute determination, translated into unalterable resolve. Are there two other elite fighters in boxing who stir as many emotions, in as broad a base of fans, as Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao?

Perhaps, that question alone, and the obvious answer itself, explain why these two legends are fighting one another. Money will ever be the rationalizing catalyst for doing business. And there is the issue of fame being the drug of choice for both these celebrity fighters. Not to forget honor, the hidden well spring for what they will dare to do, endure, to come away as the victor. Indeed, perception of scale as significance creates the framing of all events, sporting or otherwise. In the Age of Obama, we know this truth to be self evident. De La Hoya fighting Manny Pacquiao defines super star match up. No one remembers quite what Floyd Mayweather brought to De La Hoya’s last epic encounter, besides a genius for boxing and an undefeated record. Do they?

This time, the contest is rife with layered meanings that only begin with boxing, the athletic contest a flash point for Americans to reconsider the merits of global citizens beyond their imperial shores. If we need simple assurances of quality, no one puts on a bigger show than Oscar De La Hoya and no one gives more of themselves, in the quest for greatness, than Manny Pacquiao, pound for pound.

And Oscar isn’t really Oscar De La Hoya any longer and still we hold out more than hope, more than blood lust that something special might happen Saturday night. Just as we admit, the particulars of his recent fights are often deemed irrelevant to the fact of his fighting at all, his profession as boxer endlessly taken as a ritual return, a serialized ascension, the squared circle with the Golden Boy in it being akin to sacred ground.

Those charged with the responsibility of ‘covering’ De La Hoya – Pacquiao have been hard at work, keying away, attempting to identify pivotal elements for victory, puncturing hyperbole, frothing up metaphors best describing the contest as a game of public relations and casually casting aspersions, as if telling us something that we all do not find otherwise obvious. Or are their hidden meanings?

Consider the background to the De La Hoya-Pacquiao spectacle of extremes as a contest in the minds of bored editors: traditional boxing as a tired, predictable sporting entertainment rerun vs. MMA freak show status in the making, for the eternally adolescent blood thirst of a very ‘new’ generation of video gaming dullards. Can boxing survive an MMA takedown?

Secondly, why does Oscar De La Hoya not retire to the play ground of his multi-millions and the sands of Puerto Rico? Don’t we all agree that his best days as a boxing-punching marvel have passed? Why drag the likeable and diminutive Pacquiao so far beyond his best fighting weight, in order to fabricate a super-fight, to fatten the coffers of Golden Boy Promotions, boost the ego? These two topics have been debated all over the web for weeks, as if they are inextricably linked, as if De La Hoya boxing equates to a verification of the health of boxing as a global system.

No wonder the guy has a difficult time taking his final in-the-ring bow from the sport he loves.

When a legendary boxing figure such as Oscar De La Hoya decides to once again take upon himself combat readiness, assuming his role of fistic tribal leader, to endure the possible mayhem of having to fight his way to final victory, boxing, the sporting world, and the collective ALL Seeing Media Eye take particular notice. Such stands the enduring reputation of Oscar De La Hoya, still pugilism’s ultimate man, supreme corporate entity and enduring symbol of embodied branding in our post-modern time.

From the beginning what set Oscar De La Hoya apart, blushing Olympic boxing champion turned pro, was that he was the entire package of glamour and ability, entertainer and executioner. His desire was his duty and he fought to win, smiling and preening every reflexive power punch of the way. The East Los Angles boy-wonder told us he wanted to reach for the stars and take us all along with him. Seems he always appreciated his uniqueness, wanting the whole world to fall in love with him.

Even when he told us that he’d be retired by 30, hopefully building dream houses as an architect, we should have seen the symbolism. Like his idol, “Sugar” Ray Leonard, De La Hoya has always wanted to be the form giving designer of where our dreams live out our eventual destinies. Control and success were the twin pillars of Oscar De La Hoya, as he rode his talent for mixing in a superlative jab with withering left hooks and movement spaced along lines of elegant punching terror. Title fight wins and the governing bodies’ waist band trinkets he posed with before and after another performance of brilliance often with a mentoring Bob Arum leaning in – was the ritual photo op for “The Golden Boy” in his elegant prime.

How the camera loved Oscar De La Hoya in a business suit or a track suit. The printable stills of him beaded in sweat, arms raised in celebrated acknowledgement were a minor art form in boxing photojournalism throughout the 1990s. And video recorded the star quality of the man who presented himself, making an appearance, as if a red carpet were perpetually under his feet, at press conferences, or magically unfurling, as he jogged with pine trees his backdrop up at Big Bear Lake, California. Attempting to chip in from just off the green or butting noses with Felix Trinidad or Bernard Hopkins, he tended to make us believe anything was possible for him.

Oscar De La Hoya let us know that music and finance was also in his future plans for total domination; boxing was to be understood as his first love, not his only chosen destiny.

Who believed him when he said that 130 through 160 were domains for him to conquer? Did we really see him as the one to restructure the heritage for prize fighting champions as corporate giants? And yet to appreciate Oscar De La Hoya you must remember that he was once pilloried for NOT fighting the best fighters around, for picking his marks, and yet, as we now stand near the end of his career we do understanding he’s made this era his own.

Who would deny him election over Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis? And hasn’t his career been ALL about his having fought the best of the best, generation after generation and succeeding commercially long after the cutting edge of his talent dulled?

The character of a man often runs up against his idealisms lost, the routes of his accomplishments enacted and to what extent he allows method to trump the necessity of graceful entry and exit. And yet who cares when he’s arranged for so thrilling an encounter as fighting Manny Pacquiao, just beyond the limit of Pacquiao’s ensured talents and right when the final curtain to his own drama should be ceremoniously descending. Not we the people.

Sounds like Oscar De La Hoya has a real future as a promoter, doesn’t it? He seems like the kind of guy who instinctive knows you often have to find magic in mediocrity and star light within the blinding lights of fleeting fame.

Makes you wonder how much of Oscar De La Hoya, the fighter, lives inside of him and how much has been seduced by circumstance and subscribed by time?

Patrick Kehoe may be reached at pkehoe@telus.net