The Golden Boy No Longer Golden

LAS VEGAS – DECEMBER 06: Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines celebrates after defeating Oscar De La Hoya in their welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena December 6, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

It was called the dream match up. The world’s pound-for-pound champ pitted against the Golden Boy.
In the end, the pound-for-pound champ solidified his title as the Golden Boy looked like someone who was in his golden years.

LAS VEGAS – DECEMBER 06: Oscar De La Hoya looks on from the ring against Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines during their welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena December 6, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao defeated De La Hoya by TKO between the eighth and ninth round. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines defeated Oscar De La Hoya as De La Hoya’s trainer threw in the towel before his fighter could come back into the ring for the ninth round Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Casino in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS – DECEMBER 06: (R-L) Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines connects with a right to the head of Oscar De La Hoya during their welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena December 6, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

The defeat for De La Hoya will probably follow with a retirement announcement coming this week. The retirement makes sense for someone who has given so much to the sport as a fighter but seems to have nothing left in the ring. De La Hoya has such a bright future as a promoter with his company Golden Boy Promotions and as an ambassador for the sport.

For the fight week, Getty Images had a team of six to cover all the action around Las Vegas and the main event. Staff photographer Ethan Miller covered the fighter’s arrivals to Vegas on Tuesday before staff photographer Jed Jacobsohn arrived in town early Wednesday morning. Jacobsohn covered the press conference on Wednesday.

Then on Thursday Jacobsohn met with the MGM Grand Garden Arena team that was in charge of hanging the lights above the ring. Jacobsohn wanted to put a remote camera that he would be firing from his ringside position up there. The shot that he was looking for was a picture of the whole ring and hopefully he would be able to fire the remote at the right time to capture a knockout. Unfortunately, that knockout never happened but it still made for some nice photos.

LAS VEGAS – DECEMBER 06: Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines celebrates after defeating Oscar De La Hoya after De La Hoya lost by TKO between the eighth and ninth round in their welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena December 6, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

On Friday the rest of the Getty Images team arrived, including myself. I got there Friday to edit for both Miller and Jacobsohn for the much anticipated weigh-in. The weigh-in would finally show the world if De La Hoya could get down to 147 and Pacquaio would be able to beef up to 147. Pacquaio had never fought a fighter that weighed more than 135 prior to facing De La Hoya.

LAS VEGAS – DECEMBER 05: (L-R) Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines stand face-to-face during the weigh-in for their welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena December 5, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. De La Hoya fights Pacquiao December 6th. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The best part about the weigh-in was that De La Hoya asked his close friend comedian George Lopez to host it. Lopez was hilarious as he ragged on pretty much everyone on stage.

LAS VEGAS – DECEMBER 05: Comedian George Lopez hosts the weigh-in for the Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena December 5, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. De La Hoya fights Pacquiao December 6th. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

On the day of the fight our team got to the arena hours before the fighters themselves even showed. We wanted to make sure our game plan was set. We had two photographers (one ringside, one overhead), two editors and two runners. Having the two runners would be helpful as the time to get to the photographers to grab their cards is very short.

We covered four fights on the card including the main event. The thing about working a boxing match is trying to keep up the edit, watch the fight to gauge who is winning as pictures are coming to me and editor Robert Meggers practically every round.

Between the two photographers shooting the main event, nearly 4,000 pictures were taken in a span of like 30 minutes for the eight round bout. Out of those 4,000 we sent out 75 or so to www.gettyImages.com and directly to our clients.

All in all, the week went very well for team Getty Images. I have a feeling the next time I see De La Hoya back in the ring it will be in a suit as a promoter.

LAS VEGAS – DECEMBER 06: (R-L) Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines connects with a right to the head of Oscar De La Hoya during their welterweight fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena December 6, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

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