Oscar De La Hoya suffered a one-sided beatdown against Manny Pacquiao in 2008 during the final fight of his illustrious Hall of Fame career.

After eight rounds and devoid of a comeback, a bruised De La Hoya called it quits in his corner.

In the new two-part HBO documentary "" De La Hoya detailed that he was essentially already a defeated fighter with one foot out the door heading into the fight against the Filipino legend. 

“I was always the first one to wake up and go running. I was always the last one at the gym. At this point, I’m struggling and I had to be pushed. I needed to find a way to win,” De La Hoya recounted on the second episode of the documentary. 

“I was starting to feel all the years of taking punches. I knew this was my last fight, but I couldn’t tell anybody. My team was relying on me to win. It was my secret. I felt alone. And for the first time, I was drunk during camp.”

Pacquiao pummelled De La Hoya with a total of 224 punches in 24 minutes. De La Hoya failed to leverage his size advantage and connected with just 83 punches of his own. 

“I knew right there and then it was just over. I knew I was going to get beat up. I was going to lose, but something called me back. Just give me that one last time,” said De La Hoya. 

The Pacquiao fight offered De La Hoya one last handsome payday as well. 

The fight totaled 1.25 million pay-per-view buys at $54.95 a purchase on HBO. Seventy million in PPV revenue was generated, and the bout’s live gate at MGM Grand in Las Vegas exceeded $17 million.

De La Hoya further recalled the circumstances around the fight. 

“Being inside that ring, it was a strange relationship I had with boxing. It was my love, my pain, my drug – everything. I wasn’t ready to let it go,” he said. “Telling myself, ‘Man, if I get hit with one punch and never wake up, it’s going to be okay.’ As long as I was inside the ring, it was going to be okay. I was hoping for that. Hit me with one shot. I want to get knocked out.”

The 1992 Olympic gold medalist and 10-time, six-division champion De La Hoya retired four months after the loss at the age of 36 with a record of 39 wins and six losses. 

The 50-year-old contemplated a comeback in 2021 with an announced fight against Vitor Belfort that never materialized. 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.