While Pacquiao ripped his way through several weight classes, eventually nesting comfortably in the glamorous welterweight division, it’s hard to remember a time when he wasn’t a dominant force of nature.
As a fighter who has probably lost no more than five rounds, total, since beginning his climb up in weight with a complete domination of David Diaz in 2008, the public hasn’t seen a Manny Pacquiao struggling to recover lost rounds or overcome a wicked momentum shift. And they certainly haven’t seen a Manny Pacquiao getting countered and lured into traps like in his March, 2008 split decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez.
While most observers of the contest, including many members of the Filipino media, saw Marquez as the close winner, everybody agrees that the contest was a tight, back and forth affair. It was a war between two polar opposite styles which complimented each other perfectly to create the kind of professional prize fight the gets saved on tapes and DVDs and shared with younger, less-informed fans for generations to come.
