With the biggest PPV drawing card – Oscar De La Hoya – about to step into the ring once again against Manny Pacquiao, in a few short weeks, I thought we’d look back a little bit here on FightGameBlog at some of his previous wars.
Many called this Oscar’s most satisfying victory in his professional career as he knocked out Fernando Vargas in the 11th round of the fight for the victory. Vargas had been calling out Oscar for many years, insulting the man and challenging him until finally, the fight happened on September 14th, 2002 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
While reading Bret Hart’s Hitman: My Real Life In The Cartoon World Of Wrestling, you never get the feeling that he’s happy writing his memoirs. He does remember happy moments in his life, but you get the idea that he’s telling his stories with a chip on his shoulder. And if you understand the Bret Hart story, it’s not a surprise. But I truly wonder about those folks who don’t know his entire story like I do. I wonder if they think he’s just a bitter old wrestler. Because if anyone has a right to be bitter about wrestling, it’s Hart.
When I was growing up, Bret Hart was a tag team wrestler who Gorilla Monsoon called “The Excellence Of Execution”. I never thought he’d become the singles star that he did, winning the WWE championship on a number of occasions, and recently, on Wrestling Observer/F4W, a hardcore wrestling/history site, was voted the best wrestler who ever lived via a fan poll. When I was twelve, never did I think he would become that wrestler. He wasn’t huge in a big man’s game. He had good size for a normal human being, but not for a business in which being 300 pounds is a positive. But he was always the one wrestler who was believable in the ring. You couldn’t see much phony in his art. And he had this magnetism about him that wasn’t the result of pandering to the crowd. He was just good.
Manny Pacquiao’s training is broken up into two parts. One is fundamentals and the second is sparring. Freddie Roach says that he has real fighters spar and it’s the real deal. Pacquiao says his goal is to throw a lot of punches so that there’s more action in the ring. Roach says if they knock Manny down, they get a $1000 bonus. Roach says he’s worried about Oscar’s jab the most. I think he should be worried about that thing Oscar calls his left hook as well.
Oscar says that coming down to welterweight actually increases his speed. George Lopez is on hand and says that no one since Oprah has won so much while at different weight classes. Ha! Angelo Dundee says he likes Freddie Roach but his kid is going to take a licking. De La Hoya also says that it doesn’t look like he’s going to retire.
Oscar plays with his kids and says that with his family with him, it gives him more strength and power. His wife Millie says that he’s a great dad. I wonder what his other baby mamas think about that.
Pacquiao dropped out of school at age 12 to work to help his family. Manny’s mom knows it’s dangerous work to be a boxer, but she knows that because of it, he’s able to give back to his people.
Oscar says his relationship with his dad was very cold. He doesn’t even remember having a real conversation with his father. Oscar said his father was so focused on him becoming the best and didn’t take no for an answer.
Roach says Oscar is a part time fighter and you can’t be sharp by being a part time fighter. Roach says Nacho is an asshole because he disrespected him and he doesn’t like him.
Pacquiao weighs his team and has a competition between them to see who can lose ten pounds. They will win $2000 and if someone loses fifteen, it’s $3000.
Dundee’s work is done. He thinks Oscar has all the answers for Pacquiao.
After twelve rounds of sparring, Nacho said that he made some tactical mistakes and was a bit reckless in his attacking.
He says that he’s out there to prove that he’s not over the hill.
There’s a cool montage played to Eminem’s Till I Collapse to end the show.
This year’s Survivor Series was not a well received show. I actually thought it was ok, but my FGB brothers hated it.
Let’s get to the feedback.
Big D
Show overall rating: Thumbs down
Best Match: Team Batista vs. Team Orton
Worst Fight: RAW Divas vs. SMACKDOWN Divas
Overall, the show was definitely NOT worth 40 or 50 dollars and is nowhere near as epic as it should’ve been considering it was Survivor Series, WWE’s second oldest PPV tradition. You saw some decent wrestling and there were virtually ZERO backstage vignettes and one or two promos here and there, but mainly lots of in-ring action. The issue is, one great, awesome moment was not enough to warrant a purchase that big in these economic times. Honestly, the PPV was BORING for the most part…
But who cares because EDGE IS BACK! THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS NOW!!!
Survivor Series is in Boston and guess who is coming back? Yep, John Cena. I bet he still gets booed.
Remember when this show was the Thanksgiving tradition? I remember watching this on Thanksgiving and then they moved it to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Hogan vs. Undertaker). The first Survivor Series show was in 1987. My friend Young Randall says he bought the show in 1990 because he remembers Ted DiBiase introducing the Undertaker.
Chris Jericho says that not every story has a happy ending. John Cena’s story is always happy. Until he gets booed.
Good ol’ JR says that CNN reported that Jeff Hardy was found unconscious. He had me for a second until he said he wasn’t sure if Hardy was going to wrestle tonight or not. It sounds like this is a way to get Edge back involved.
1. Shawn Michaels, Cryme Tyme, The Great Khali, and Rey Mysterio vs. JBL, MVP, The Miz, John Morrison, and Kane
Traditional Survivor Series rules here.
MVP yakuza kicked JTG and got the pin.
The Great Khali chopped MVP and then pinned him immediately after. And then he kissed a fat chick. Ok, that’s not until later.
With UFC 92 on the horizon, headlined by two title fights and a grudge match between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva, I thought today we’d look back at the first time these two met.
The stage was the largest in either man’s career. It was the finals of the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament, what many call the greatest tournament in MMA history. Rampage racked up hard fought wins over Murilo Bustamante and UFC’s Chuck Liddell (with Dana White on commentary) when Chuck’s corner threw in the towel after Chuck took a series of nasty blows to the body.
Wanderlei Silva scored wins over two of Japan’s most BELOVED stars. Kazushi Sakuraba fell to a defeat at Wanderlei’s hands in the first round. Silva then advanced to fight two time Judo Olympic Gold Medalist Hidehiko Yoshida in a VERY close fight Silva won via decision.
This fight was regarded as one of the best of the year between two warriors and in just five weeks, they will battle at UFC 92 for the THIRD time.
While reading Bret Hart’s Hitman: My Real Life In The Cartoon World Of Wrestling, you never get the feeling that he’s happy writing his memoirs. He does remember happy moments in his life, but you get the idea that he’s telling his stories with a chip on his shoulder. And if you understand the Bret Hart story, it’s not a surprise. But I truly wonder about those folks who don’t know his entire story like I do. I wonder if they think he’s just a bitter old wrestler. Because if anyone has a right to be bitter about wrestling, it’s Hart.
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