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Philippines, 13 May 2024 |
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Pacquiao is Still Best Welterweight By Teodoro Medina Reynoso PhilBoxing.com Wed, 02 Oct 2019  After the self proclaimed The Truth, Errol Spence struggled mightily in barely outpointing Shawn Porter in their unification match, one undeniable conclusion has been arrived at by many experts and observers around boxingville: Manny Pacquiao is still be best fighter at 147 lbs. This despite the Ring Magazine or other so called media based rating organizations which ranked WBA super champion Pacquiao only third behind now WBC and IBF titlist Spence and WBO beltholder Terrence Crawford. Before that fight, all but one of the experts and scribes polled by the Ring which included a few former and still active boxers predicted a smashing victory by Spence, some saying that Porter would not even hear the final bell. They said Porter would be foolish to try to box against Spence who was regarded as the better boxer of the two and even more foolish of Shawn to essay his trademark bullrushing tactic as that would put him in the danger of being knocked out or stopped by his bigger and stronger punching adversary. But Porter who earned fame and developed his fighting capabilities serving as sparring partner of Pacquiao some years ago proved the doomsayers wrong. 
Errol Spence Jr (R) dug deep to overcome Shawn Porter's challenge. Seeing the disadvantage of trading jabs against a guy with much longer reach, Porter decided to force Spence in a phone booth war by attacking him at every opportunity and prompting him to wild exchanges at the corners and along the ropes where Shawn showed many success. Truth to tell, Porter had more attention grabbing sequences in outpunching and outworking his bigger, supposedly bigger punching opponent than Errol had in his own two fisted counter assaults. By the end of the tenth round, Porter was seen by many including the Spence corner as having the slight lead. Many expected Porter to fight the way he did but they were surprised that he more than held up and hanged on and more surprised that Spence never troubled much less threatened him with a knockout except for that moment in the penultimate round which was more of an act of desperation. But even then Porter was just also momentarily staggered from which he quickly recovered while taking the mandatory eight count from the referee. And as soon as action returned, he was back on his usual attack mode. Two of the judges, including Filipino Rey Danseco gave the bout to Spence both by five points margin while third judge gave the dissenting vote in favor of Porter by two points. According to many who watched the fight said it could not be decided by more than two points either way. While some classified the fight as a modern classic for the almost non stop back and forth action from the third round on, it lacked the science, the corner strategy and tactical strategy that was on full display in the better and high quality Pacquiao vs Thurman fight last July Incidentally, Thurman has fought and beaten much more impressively the same Porter and the man Spence has chosen to fight next, Danny Garcia. This means Pacquiao fought and beaten the better welterweight in Thurman than both Spence (against Mikey Garcia and Porter) and Bud Crawford (Amir Khan) have this year presenting a strong argument for him as still the best welterweight fighter and champion around. 
Pacquiao and Porter during one of their sparring sessions. Spence who had been dropping the name of Pacquiao as the man he loved to fight next may have been rudely awakened by his showing against Porter who Pacquiao never had trouble handling in many vicious sparring that he opted for another Garcia as his next foe. Meanwhile Top Rank's Crawford remained the odd man in the current welterweight mix dominated by Al Haymon and Floyd Mayweather's Premier Boxing Championship boys. Bob Arum has to swallow his huge ego for Crawford to have a fight against any of PBC big name welters that include Pacquiao. The biggest news however is that Manny Pacquiao is back in negotiation for a rematch against the man who denied him of the official title not only as the best welterweight but the best pound for pound fighter of this generation---Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Indeed, Manny need not fight any of the current overrated so called welterweight champions around including Spence and Crawford to prove he is still the best fighter in the planet (without apologies to Vasily Lomachenko). Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.  |
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