Last spring John David Jackson commented “Manny Pacquiao never fights black fighters,” and ever since that statement, Pacquiao fans across the world have considered the world class trainer to be the world’s number one Pacquiao hater. And in a recent interview with FightFanNation.com’s Brent Matteo Alderson , John David shared his thoughts on Pacquiao’s performance against Cotto and talked about the controversy regarding the drug testing as well as his thoughts on the direction of Manny’s career as he moves onward to Joshua Clottey and hopefully towards potential fights with either Shane Mosley or Floyd Mayweather. Despite the fact that the former world champion has vocalized his opinion that he thinks Pacquiao is technically deficient he still gives the Filipino legend credit and noted, “I don’t really care how the Manny Pacquiao fans feel about me, but right now I have to give Pacquiao credit for being pound for pound number because of the names that he has beaten recently. Whether I think he’s as good as people think he is, it really doesn’t matter. I give him that. He deserves that. He fought the better fighters right now.” However Jackson was critical of how Pacquiao made Cotto come in at a catch-weight and is a traditionalist in the sense that he believes that the weight class boundaries should be followed in championship bouts and noted, “They were talking about Yuri Foreman at 154. If you call yourself champion fight them at their weight, but they were talking about a catch weight. If you say you’re that good, fight them at their weight. Ray Robinson fought for the Light Heavyweight title and he didn’t tell Joey Maxim to meet me at 171 or 168, he went to 175 even though he didn’t weigh 175. He didn’t come in at a catch-weight. The fighters today want a catch-weight to fight somebody. If you challenge a champion, you make the weight that is there. You come in at 147 or 154. Champions can offset that by saying I’m not coming down. Pacquiao did what he had to do. I don’t knock Pacquiao. Some people think those two pounds really hurt Cotto. Unless you have been in boxing and had to lose that kind of weight you wouldn’t know and some people don’t really understand how much of that strength you really need going into a fight. Personally I thought Cotto would have enough left in him to win the fight so guess what? Pacquiao proved me wrong.” In regards to the controversy surrounding the extra-drug testing that Team Mayweather was pushing, the trainer commented, “Up until now he has taken every test and he has passed it. Now he’s concerned about a blood test and said that it will weaken him, but there is a time difference for that to where it won’t weaken you that much. If you are clean as say you say you are, and I’m not saying he’s not clean, but if you are across the board as you say you are there shouldn’t be a conflict for any test. You should be ready take every test there is for you. And it makes people think, that maybe he is dirty. Still right now he is the best to me. Before he retired Floyd was pound for pound, but I give Pacquiao the edge because he has beaten the more quality fighters the last three years. They want Mosley to fight Mayweather so one of the guys will eliminate the other because he may get past one, but I guarantee he won’t get past the other. If he fights Shane, Shane is physical and if you fight Pacquiao and you are champion or he’s coming up, you fight him at your wait limit. Don’t settle for less and fight him at a lower weight limit to make it easier for him. If you fight at 147, then you come in at 147. If he fights at 154, you come in at the weight limit. You have to give yourself a fighting chance against the guy. When the bell rings Pacquiao brings it. I credit him that, but is he a great technician? Offensively he’s not bad. Defensively I see a lot of mistakes and the right kind of fighter would tear him up. Styles make fights and I give Bob Arum a lot of credit the last few years because he put the right kind of fighters in front of him.” So even though Jackson rates Pacquiao as the best fighter in the world, he is still adamant that Pacquiao has some deficiencies in his arsenal and noted, “When Pacquiao fought Cotto, when Cotto pressured him and had him against the ropes that was Cotto’s fight. One thing about Pacquiao and I don’t care if the fans don’t like this, is that he hasn’t been taught how to fight on the inside. When you get him on the ropes he can’t fight that way. Because he hasn’t learned how to fight that way so if anybody gets him on the ropes they should bang him on his body and forearms and shoulders and they’ll have a shot. In the middle of the ring he’s going to tear you up. He has speed, but he doesn’t have Floyd Mayweather speed. He has speed, but he doesn’t have blinding speed. He’s not a bad little guy. You have to give Bob Arum credit. He’s matched him well, he’s done the right thing by this kid. And you have to give Arum credit for that and you have to give Pacquiao his credit because he brings it.”
