Regular readers might be familiar with my occasional posts — “Correcting Bill Simmons” and “Correcting Rick Reilly” — where I try to help out my better-paid, less-informed counterparts by pointing out when/where they’re wrong. This time, I’m going to tackle ESPN The Mag as a whole. I know I’m going to hear some guy at the sports bar regurgitate this “analysis” as his own opinion and I won’t have the wherewithal to call him on it.

Let’s start with everyone’s favorite blowhard — and I doubt he’d take that as an insult given his commentary stylings — Stephen A. Smith. In his “Up Front” column, he criticizes Oscar De La Hoya for not knowing when to give it up.

Help, someone! Pretty Please!

It would be really nice if someone could muster some plausible explanation as to why a fighter like Oscar De La Hoya, beyond his prime for quite a while before the Manny Pacquiao bout, still chose to step into the ring and get his brains beat out. The mismatch was so obvious that Oscar’s wife, Millie, was screaming for him to quit before he had the common sense to do it himself.

It’s really easy to knock De La Hoya after the match is over when it’s clear that he shouldn’t have fought the fight. But one quick look at the pre-fight odds (-165 Hoya / +135 Pacquiao) reveals that this fight fooled a LOT of people, not just the Golden Boy. According to the betting public, De La Hoya was the clear favorite in the fight, so why would Oscar think that he was about to step into a beatdown? The betting public clearly doesn’t know everything, but it’s a pretty good gauge of public opinion and if the public is fooled, why would De La Hoya — who has an ego of a big-time fighter — know any better?

If Smith writes this column before the fight, I’d give him props. But this is classic kick-’em-while-they’re-down writing.

Let’s move on to Mike & Mike (Golic & Greenberg) who answer “The Big Question” — if the best players in college sports don’t make any noise in the pros, what’s their legacy?

At the end of the year, it’s always interesting to look back at all that has happened in the world of sports over the last 12 months. 2008 brought us a host of compelling sports stories, including the culmination of the Patriots’ (unsuccessful) quest for perfection, a Bejing Olympics that featured incredible accomplishments by the likes of Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and the Redeem Team, and, of course, Brett Favre’s unretirement, which managed to hold the sports news cycle hostage for a solid month or more.

As is our tradition, we’ve once again broken our Year End Sports Review into three sections. The first is “What We Learned,� a list that’s packed with a number of impressive feats. And when there are feats, inevitably there are also failures.

Don’t miss the other two parts: “What We Already Knewâ€� and “What We Think Might Happen.â€�

The New England Patriots weren’t so perfect after all.

After rolling through the 2007 regular season unscathed, the Patriots entered the 2008 Super Bowl as overwhelming favorites to roll over the pesky, but seemingly inferior New York Giants. The Pats were just one win away from staking their claim as the best football team in NFL history. But thanks to a dominating Giants’ defensive line, an improbable catch by David Tyree, and a virtually mistake-free performance by Eli Manning, the unbeatable New England Patriots were beat. It’ll go down as one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history, and considering Tom Brady’s season-ending injury in 2008 cost the Pats a chance for redemption, it seems that many have forgotten how New England stood just one win away from perfection. – Anthony Stalter

Michael Phelps is part fish.

Eight gold medals in one Olympiad? No problem. Michael Phelps made the seemingly impossible look (relatively) easy en route to one of the most – if not the most – impressive Olympic performances ever. Phelps had to swim all four strokes, compete in both sprint and endurance races, and deal with the constant media attention and pressure that came along with his quest. Sure, NBC turned up the hype, but what Phelps accomplished is simply incredible. – John Paulsen

Usain Bolt is part cheetah.

First, Usain Bolt made Jamaica proud by setting a new world record (9.69) in the 100-meter sprint. Then, he broke the 12 year-old 200-meter world record with a time of 19.30 seconds. He showboated during the first race but cleaned up his act to win the second race in a professional manner. Some even say that Usain Bolt – not Michael Phelps – was the biggest story to come out of the Bejing Olympics. – JP

The Big 12 has the best quarterbacks in the nation.

The Big 12 housed some of the best quarterbacks in all of college football in 2008. Texas’s Colt McCoy, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Missouri’s Chase Daniel and Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell were all considered Heisman candidates at least at one point during the season, while McCoy and Bradford are still in the running. Amazingly, Bradford and McCoy aren’t done; both will return in 2008. And although they don’t receive as much attention as the top signal callers in the conference, Kansas’s Todd Reesing and Baylor’s Robert Griffin certainly turned heads this year as well. In fact, the highly versatile Griffin is only a freshman and could make the Bears a very dangerous team for years to come. – AS

I’m not much of a boxing fan, but even I knew that there was a big fight on Saturday. It turns out Manny Pacquiao overcame a weight disadvantage to pound Oscar De La Hoya into a mercy stoppage.

In the end, it was a bruised, battered and utterly befuddled De La Hoya, 35, sitting with a blank look on his face as new trainer Nacho Beristain stopped the fight after much discussion before the start of the ninth round. It was a mercy stoppage and one that could have come from referee Tony Weeks during the seventh round, a classic example of a 10-8 round without a knockdown. Pacquiao battered De La Hoya in the round, landing 45 power shots, the most ever recorded by CompuBox in the 31 De La Hoya fights it has tracked.

De La Hoya might have been a shot fighter when he walked up the steps for battle, but Pacquiao, 29, the icon of the Philippines, also deserves credit for the upset in a fight many critics proclaimed as a mismatch. They thought it would be Pacquiao who would be annihilated because he had spent his career fighting in much smaller weight divisions before this leap to welterweight. The ironic thing is that the bigger guy entering the ring was actually Pacquiao. He weighed in officially on Friday at 142 pounds to De La Hoya’s 145. But on HBO’s unofficial scale on fight night, Pacquiao was up to 148½ and De La Hoya was surprisingly only 147.

Pacquiao’s domination earned him his third victory of the year in his third weight division. A former flyweight, junior featherweight and featherweight champion, Pacquiao won the junior lightweight championship by beating Juan Manuel Marquez in their March rematch and then moved to lightweight, where he won a title with a destruction of David Diaz in June. Pacquiao then made the jump to welterweight to face De La Hoya and surely locked up fighter of the year honors by completing his Henry Armstrongesque year.

Next up for Pacquiao likely will be junior welterweight champion Ricky Hatton in the spring. For De La Hoya, let’s hope there is no next fight. If this is indeed the end for him, as it should be, he deserves our respect for a great career and a hearty thanks for the memories. He will be missed but he will not be forgotten.

It’s funny how all the pre-fight talk was about De La Hoya’s weight advantage, but it was Pacquiao that actually weighed in a little heavier just before the fight. Not funny like “ha ha” funny, but funny like “hmmm” funny.

Screw it – you know what I mean.

All times ET…

College Basketball

Saturday, 3:30 PM: No. 4 Duke vs. Michigan, ESPN
Saturday, 1:30 PM: No. 5 Gonzaga vs. Indiana
Saturday, 4 PM: Ohio State vs. No. 7 Notre Dame, ESPNU
Sunday, 6 PM: No. 21 Florida vs. Florida State, ESPN Full Court

College Football

Saturday, 12 PM: Navy vs. Army, CBS
Saturday, 1 PM: No. 17 Boston College vs. No. 25 Virginia Tech-ACC Championship Game, ABC
Saturday, 4 PM: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Florida-SEC Championship Game, CBS
Saturday, 4:30 PM: No. 5 USC vs. UCLA, ABC
Saturday, 8 PM: No. 20 Missouri vs. No. 2 Oklahoma-Big 12 Championship Game, ABC

NBA

Friday, 8 PM: Portland Trail Blazers vs. Boston Celtics, ESPN
Friday, 10:30 PM: Toronto Raptors vs. Utah Jazz, ESPN
Saturday, 9 PM: Utah Jazz vs. Phoenix Suns
Sunday, 1 PM: Portland Trail Blazers vs. Toronto Raptors, NBA-TV

NFL

Sunday, 1 PM: Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants, Fox
Sunday, 4:15 PM: Dallas Cowboys vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, Fox
Sunday, 8:15 PM: Washington Redskins vs. Baltimore Ravens, NBC

NHL

Friday, 8:30 PM: Colorado Avalanche vs. Dallas Stars
Saturday, 2 PM: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Ottawa Senators
Saturday, 10 PM: Edmonton Oilers vs. San Jose Sharks

Boxing

Saturday, 9 PM: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiano, HBO PPV

Oscar De La Hoya will wrap up his boxing career on December 6 against Filipino star fighter Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

The conditions of the deal will not be announced until a conference call on Thursday. Both sides stalled negotiations throughout the summer, but the conversation was revived recently and a reasonable solution was found to split the estimated $100 million revenue from this fight. This is boxing’s most lucrative bout since De La Hoya’s split-decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year.

Both boxers will make sacrifices to make this fight a reality. They will have to make the 147-pound limit, which means De La Hoya will be dropping down to the welterweight class for the first time in eight years and Pacquiao will have to bulk up to the heaviest weight of his career.

- With all due respect to NBA officials, amateur boxing is the undisputed winner as being the world’s most corrupt sport. But it is still great to see an unknown boxer like Oscar De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather Jr. receiving international exposure for the first time. The boxing finals will be televised on Saturday evening, 8/23, on NBC. Tune in to find out who will be the next great fighter.

- Will this year be a triumphant return to glory for USA Basketball? In 2004, the men’s team convinced many of us to root against them in Athens. This Olympics, we have brought our A-Team to Beijing, as Kobe, LeBron, and D. Wade command the court. Tune into NBC on Saturday, 8/23, to watch the gold medal finals.

- As summer winds down, the baseball pennant races are heating up. And another possible playoff preview will take place this weekend, as the Tampa Bay Rays visit Chicago to face the A.L. Central’s leading White Sox. Sunday’s contest will be televised nationally on TBS Sunday, 8/24, at 2 p.m. EST.

- The Little League World Series takes place in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. ABC will televise the championship game on Sunday afternoon, 8/24, beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST.

Boxing fans are going to riot if there isn’t a fight between Oscar de la Hoya and Manny Pacquiao. Right now, money is (of course) the main holdup. Manny wants 40 percent and Oscar thinks he should only get 30 percent. Ultimately, there is no better way for Oscar to retire than to end his career with a bout against the best pound-for-pound boxer in the sport. According to promoter Bob Arum, this HBO PPV fight will most likely generate over $100 million. If Manny ends up getting 30 percent, he will still make more money in this fight than he ever has before.

Sadly, the boxing audience has dwindled since its heyday. The average sports fan doesn’t even know who the current heavyweight champion is. Boxing has simply lost its star power and with it, its relevance. A fight between Manny and Oscar would have a real chance to bring the sport back to the forefront with both boxing fans and non-boxing fans. It will be a real shame if the fight of the century doesn’t take place because the two fighters can’t agree on how to split the purse.

One of the most anticipated fights in the boxing world is the rumored match between the unassuming Manny Pacquiao and the “King of Boxing� Oscar de la Hoya that may take place in the month of December at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Without a doubt, this fight will bring enthusiasts and non-boxing enthusiasts together to witness one of the most historic boxing matches of all time. Physically, Oscar is the bigger man – “It will be like an adult bullying a young boy,� said a source from de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions. However, with Oscar being at the cusp of retirement, Pacquiao might just kick out the walker beneath Oscar and take his crown. In many ways, Pacquiao has already won. Hailing from the impoverished country of the Philippines, he has transcended the limitations of his home country to become one of the best fighters in boxing.

Emmanuel Dapigran Pacquiao was born December 17, 1978, in Bukidnon, Mindinao, Philippines. While still in grade school, the young Pacquiao sold bread locally to help support his family. He started fighting in the streets for small purses and, eventually, his superb boxing skills were recognized. At age 15, Pacquiao was sent to Manila to be molded into a professional boxer. One year later, in 1995, he began fighting professionally as a sleek 106-pound teenage brawler against the Philippines’ best boxers. After defeating Edmund Ignacio in four rounds, he became a household name. Pacquiao won his next ten fights before his first loss to Rustico Torrecampo on February 9, 1996. However, according to sportcaster Joaquin “Quinto� Henson, Paquiao was at disadvantage because he had to use heavier gloves since he didn’t make weight. Paquiao’s first professional loss did not slow him down at all; momentum built as he put together a series of victories over the next two years against experienced Filipino fighters.

But the fight that defined his career was his bout against Mexican boxer and three-time world champion, Marco Antonio Barrera, in 2003. By this time Pacquiao had won and retained three belts in different weight divisions. Pacquiao had to move up in weight for his first fight in the featherweight division. The extra weight didn’t slow Pacquiao down; his superb speed and power helped to defeat Barrera via a TKO in the eleventh round at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. By the end of 2006, Ring Magazine and HBO declared Pacquiao the fighter of the year.

Up to March of 2008, Pacquiao fought Mexico’s finest fighters earning the title of “The Mexicutioner� and world super featherweight champion. During his latest fight in Las Vegas against David Diaz, audiences witnessed how dynamic Pacquiao can be, as he once again increased his weight to 135 pounds to fight for the WBC lightweight title. His trainer, Freddie Roach, said it was the best he’s ever seen Pacquiao box. Speed has always been on Pacquiao’s side. At 135 pounds, he has said that he feels “much stronger and more powerful� and believes that he has found his ideal weight. After the win over Diaz, Pacquiao had won four title belts in four weight divisions and became the first Asian boxer to conquer the boxing world.

If the rumors of a Manny/Oscar fight are true, Pacquiao will once again have to increase weight for a welterweight brawl. Can he beef up and maintain his speed to defy the odds against the Golden Boy? Regardless, it will be the fight of the century (so far).