Just a few short months ago the fight game was almost universal in proclaiming Manny Pacquiao as the best ‘pound-for-pound’ fighter on the planet.
It was back in May that Pacquiao dominated against ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley and the manner of that win, combined with the fact that Pacquiao’s main rival Floyd Mayweather had been out of the ring for an eternity, lead most scribes to declare that the Filipino phenom was hands down the best fighter in the world.
However Mayweather’s re-emergence after a thumping TKO win over Victor Ortiz coupled with Pacquiao enduring yet another life and death struggle with old nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez means the ‘pound-for-pound’ debate is back on everyone’s lips.
Has Pacquiao lost his way after two passive displays, albeit against world class opposition? Is Mayweather at 34 still the majestic force of old? And of the two of them just who is the best fighter of the era?
I guess we’ll never truly find a definitive answer to that question until the two fistic superpowers agree to lock horns, and at time of writing a clash between the two looks no closer to being agreed (despite widespread rumours of a May 5 2012 date surfacing a few weeks ago).
What we can say is that, rather like Lennox Lewis v Mike Tyson a decade ago, the longer the biggest possible match to be made in the whole sport goes without being made, the more lustre any potential contest loses. Pacquiao’s stock has definitely been damaged after his wafer-thin points win over Marquez, who again boxed his heart out only to be cruelly and controversially denied by the judges.
I was surprised at how Pacquiao was unable to close the distance against Marquez, and he struggled with this too in his win over Mosley despite dominating.
