I will concede that Manny Pacquiao, who just recently dismissed Shane Mosley, is physically in his prime today and is virtually unbeatable among welterweights.
Too bad. Nobody in the horizon can really give him a fight, a competition.
Until loudmouth Floyd Mayweather Jr suddenly discovers his courage and decides to give the Pacquiao fight ago, we may not be able to see how great Pacquiao really is ? in his physical prime.
Too bad, Manny is invading the welterweight ranks at the time these are devoid of Hall of Famers in the prime of their careers. Even Mayweather is an aging welterweight and may not be the same fighter he was by the time he decides ? if ever ? to square off with Manny.
It is for this reason that I will place Manny as one of the best, if not the greatest, among featherweights of all time. Of course, three years from now many will make an argument and will strongly defend their case in making Pacquiao the greatest boxer of all time.
I am even now taking back my assessment of him five years ago when Star Sports asked me if he was then the greatest Filipino boxer ever. I said then, it will take a complete body of work from Pacquiao before I can consider him greater than the late Flash Elorde who reigned as superfeatherweight champion for seven long years.
Today, there is no question where Pacquiao ranks among Filipino boxers and for that matter, among Asians.
In the featherweight classes, the 126 to 130 pound limits, Manny had for contemporaries Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez for competition. Boy, they represent the strongest quartet of boxers who fought each other in their prime.
When each of them fought one and the other the first time, nobody was more than 31 years old. Nobody has more than three losses in their respective fight records, too, and all of them were feared pound for pound fighters.
Pacquiao was then the youngest in that quartet of little big men that are first ballot Hall of Famers as soon as they are qualified for enshrinement.
Pacquiao fought them at least twice each and emerged with the best among them, of course, by compiling a 5-1-1 while inflicting the worst and devastating defeats in the careers of Morales and Barrera. Only Morales was able to defeat Pacquiao who, then as a 27-year old, was still a raw but rising boxing superstar. As great champions do, however, he avenged that defeat twice over ? all by knockouts.
Pacquiao?s featherweight contemporaries certainly rank among the greatest quartet of competition in the history of boxing. One that is only equaled if not surpassed by the Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran-Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns reign in the welterweight and middleweight division almost three decades ago.
Pacquiao fought with boundless energy like Duran when the latter was lightweight. He now even sports facial hairs ? goatee and moustache ? like Duran once did.
At 33, Manny is at his peak but nobody out there can give him the kind competition that will someday make him also the greatest welterweight of all time.
True, Manny made stops at the flyweight, bantamweight and lightweight classes ? middleweight even ? on his way to capturing an unimaginable record of eight titles in as many weight divisions. But there too, he was never really tested as he will not be tested as a diminutive welterweight simply for lack of competition.
Still, Manny has propelled himself and the sports of boxing into territories never charted before by any boxer.
For all the records he already accumulated, even a loss to Mayweather will not tarnish his image as among the greatest to ever don the boxing mitts.
Too bad, he became the toast of boxing when he is several cuts and way ahead of the others.
Now, you can?t exactly blame Manny for not trying to have game at this point of his career. Nobody wants to dance the music with him and laugh their way to the bank too.
