Pacquiao ‘felt pity’ for his battered foe

LAS VEGAS — By the seventh round, his trainer was telling him to press the action, to finish the job. But Manny Pacquiao’s mind was telling him something else.

He could sense what everyone else could plainly see, that Oscar De La Hoya, his left eye swollen shut, his reflexes gone, more than likely was fighting his last fight.

“I felt pity for him,” Pacquiao said.

Moments later, the fight was over. And quite possibly, a career.

De La Hoya, his face a puffy and purple mass, failed to answer the bell for the ninth round, providing Pacquiao a lopsided TKO victory Saturday night in front of a crowd of 16,000 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

It was a mismatch from the opening bell, only not the one many in the media had forecast.

De La Hoya (39-6, 30 KOs) was supposed to be too big and too strong for Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs), who moved up two weight divisions for the 147-pound bout. read full story