De La Hoya Says Ike Quartey Hit Harder Than Manny Pacquiao

Oscar De La Hoya has shared a lot of rings with heavy hitters, but the hardest puncher he ever faced isn't the man who ended his career. It's Ike Quartey — the former WBA welterweight champ who went 37-4-1 with 32 knockouts and, by De La Hoya's own account, hit harder than Manny Pacquiao ever did.

That's saying something. Pacquiao stopped De La Hoya in the eighth round in 2008, the final bout of a Hall of Fame career and one where the Golden Boy had drained himself down to 145lbs. But in a recent conversation with Showboy Sho, De La Hoya pointed all the way back to 1999 and his split-decision win over Quartey as the night he absorbed the most punishment of his life.

De La Hoya described Quartey as having bricks for hands, the kind of power that hurt in a way he couldn't quite explain. Every clean shot, he said, had him wincing. It's a notable comparison given who he's shared a ring with — not just Pacquiao, but Floyd Mayweather, who edged him on a split decision at 154lbs, and Bernard Hopkins, who stopped him in the ninth round of their 2004 middleweight fight.

A Twelve-Round War

The Quartey fight itself was a back-and-forth brawl De La Hoya likened to a Rocky movie. Quartey dropped him in the sixth, but De La Hoya got up and floored Quartey in the same round. He closed the show in the twelfth, scoring another knockdown with the scorecards reading even going into the final three minutes.

By his telling, that last round was decided by sheer volume. De La Hoya pinned Quartey in the corner, let go with something like 35 punches to the face, and Quartey — tough as they come — kept firing back the whole way. It was enough to swing a tight fight his way and defend his WBC welterweight title.

Decades on, it's the kind of reflection that reframes how we rank punchers. Pacquiao's power is the stuff of legend, built on highlight-reel finishes. But De La Hoya, who felt both men's best shots, says the one who left the deepest impression wasn't the one everyone remembers.