This weekend as Pacquiao continued to concentrate and train for his fight against Clottey, he took extra time to greet and sign autograph for his fans. On the other hand Mayweather continued his quest to bash and tarnish Pacquiao’s legacy.
In my last article, Can Mosley Afford Not To Agree On An Olympic Style Testing, I talked about how Mayweather and his camp were constantly using Pacquiao’s name to promote their fight and keep the former relevant. Some may have disagreed, but once again Mayweather proved me right.
In a recent interview with radio-planet.tv Mayweather said, “In a fighter’s career, a fighter starts off good and he’s good until the end of his career or a fighter starts off good and then goes downhill towards the end of his career. A fighter doesn’t start like Manny Pacquiao, just ordinary, and then once he gets over 25, he becomes an extraordinary fighter. It doesn’t work like that in this sport of boxing,”
It seems Mayweather is in awe of Pacquiao’s recent accomplishments, and doubts his own ability to match it.
Does his statements even hold true? Let’s analyze one of his statements, “A fighter doesn’t start like Manny Pacquiao, just ordinary, and then once he gets over 25 (years old) he becomes an extraordinary fighter. It doesn’t work like that in this sport of boxing,”
First off, where did he get the notion that Pacquiao was only an ordinary fighter in the beginning? He may have been unknown at the beginning of his career to the American audience, but he was an accomplished boxer in the lower weight classes and fought many of the best fighters in his division. Pacquiao had been an OPBF flyweight champion, WBC flyweight champion, WBC International super bantamweight champion even before winning the IBF super bantamweight title from Ledwaba.
Second, there are a number of great boxers that did not have a great start, but achieved greatness in the latter part of their careers. Even Marvin Hagler had a couple of losses and draws in the first part of his career and he turned out to be one of the best middleweights of all time. Another great fighter, Antonio Cervantes, who is considered by many as probably the best junior welterweight in history only had 12 loses in 106 fights, but eight of those came in the first five years of his career.
A prime example today is Bernard Hopkins. A virtual unknown early in his career, he is now regarded as one of the best fighters in history. A common characteristic of all these fighters is their willingness to fight the best at anytime and Pacquiao certainly has exhibited that trait. Like old saying, “If you want to be the best, then you have to fight the best”
Also, there is no specific age that one can say that a fighter’s skill or success should tail off or not be able to be improved upon. We only need to look at Hopkins once again as an example. In fact, Mayweather is arguably a better fighter than when he was 25 years old because of his experience combined with his superior physical abilities. Even in other sports, one can argue that Jordan and Kobe became a much better player in their later years because of experience and their dedication to improve and learn new skills,
Pacquiao has improved immensely and maximized his talent because he’s fought the best. How many times have we seen Pacquiao come to a fight as a huge underdog only to prove everyone wrong? How many times have we seen Floyd come in a fight as an underdog? Maybe the fight against Diego is the only time.
It’s true that Floyd is ultra-talented, and would rarely be an underdog against most fighters, but the fact still remains that there were many great fighters that he never fought during their peak. He never fought Mosley, Margarito, Tszyu, and Cotto when they were at the top of their game even though fans were clamoring for him to face them.
Also Floyd Jr. must realize that many fighters don’t have his pedigree, Unlike Mayweather, Pacquiao didn’t come from a ‘boxing’ family with a wealth of knowledge about the intricacies of the sport. If Pacquiao did, then he would have been a much polished fighter very early in his career. In addition, Pacquiao grew up dirt poor, and did not have an opportunity to polish his skills in the amateurs because he turned pro at only 16 years old in order to help his family.
Mayweather often points out Pacquiao’s number of loses to minimize his ‘greatness’, when in fact he’s lost more, if you take into account the former’s amateur record. Mayweather lost six times as an amateur, while Pacquiao who started his professional career at 16 has only lost three times.
Now let’s analyze another statement of his “In a fighter’s career, a fighter starts off good and he’s good until the end of his career or a fighter starts off good and then goes downhill towards the end of his career…”
If a fighter starts off good and stays good until the end of their career, then he must have been an overachiever or lazy. It’s either a fighter with a great work ethic, but whose limited physical abilities hinder him from achieving a greater level of success or an excellent athlete, whose lack of desire and work ethic impedes him from achieving his potential. If not either of those two above, then it’s either bad luck or they were never given the chance to prove their greatness.
Pacquiao has certainly been blessed in his career by being able to constantly prove himself against the best fighters because of his popularity and being guided by one of the best trainers in the sport.
In addition, great athletes such as Pacquiao do not stay at the same level that they were in the early part of their careers because of their work ethic. One of the main reasons that Pacquiao has achieved his level of greatness is he’s a willing and dedicated student of the ‘Sweet Science”, who continues to hone his skills.
Pacquiao is also at his prime and not at the end of his career, so there is no reason why we shouldn’t expect more greatness from Pacquiao. Mayweather Jr. is older than Pacquiao and the former is still performing at a high level, so he’s even contradicting his statement. The fact is Pacquiao’s skills has always been undermined by his critics and will constantly find excuses for his success because they already formed a preconceived idea of what he can or can’t do.
(Originally posted in sportzhypeboxing.com, for questions email me at [email protected] and follow me on facebook)
