Oscar De La Hoya claims to have faced a more formidable puncher than Manny Pacquiao, even describing his opponent as having bricks for hands.
The Mexican-American collided with ‘Pac Man’ in 2008, suffering an eighth-round stoppage defeat in what proved to be the final fight of his Hall of Fame career.
At that point, De La Hoya was certainly past his best and, to make matters worse, had boiled himself down to 145lbs after competing at higher weights in previous fights.
Against Floyd Mayweather, for instance, the ‘Golden Boy’ lost a split decision at 154lbs and, prior to that, had suffered a ninth-round knockout defeat in his middleweight clash with Bernard Hopkins in 2004.
It was back in 1999, however, that De La Hoya reckons he was hit the hardest by any opponent, despite managing to defend his WBC world title with a split decision victory.
Standing in the opposite corner, meanwhile, was Ike Quartey, who certainly troubled the welterweight champion by scoring a sixth-round knockdown.
Describing their encounter as a “Rocky movie”, De La Hoya has told Showboy Sho all these years later that Quartey packed an even harder punch than Pacquiao.
“I thought he had bricks in his hands. That’s how hard he hit. He would hit me and I’d be like, ‘Oh, damn’.
“It would hurt different; it was painful. [But] it was a fun fight. It was like a Rocky movie – he dropped me once … then I dropped him [twice].
“The fight was even [on the judges’ scorecards] going into the last round. So I got him in the corner, threw like 35 punches – hit him in the face – and he was still throwing back.”
In response to getting dropped, De La Hoya floored Quartey in the same round before scoring a 12th-round knockdown and ultimately winning on points.
Quartey is a former WBA welterweight champion, ending his career with a record of 37 wins from 42 fights, 32 of those wins by knockout.
