Classic Forum-- Thoughts On Manny Pacquiao...

[sweet_scientist]

I don't really do lists anymore, so i'll just keep it simple.

The real meat of Pac's career so far is at feather and junior lightweight.There he's a excellent, proven fighter, about on par with a Marquez.This is where he's arguablt a great fighter for some imo.

At super-bantam he was still drained and huge(lookd about two weightclasses bigger than ledwaba) at the weight.Still fairly one-dimensional and raw, but with more than enough physical ability and power to rate as one of a very historically weak divisions best fighters.

Below that a ridiculously drained and huge Fly who would lack the skills or experience to deal with the greats and near greats of the division.More or less a dangerous punching spoiler here....has the raw talent to upset more established fighters if they come in overconfident\ out of shape as the Sasakul fight showed, but not a serious factor overall.

At lightweight and above its way too early to rate him.The Oscar beating is my favourite beating for a long time though.

I will say that even though Oscar has obviously lost another two steps since the Floyd fight, it does put into perspective how notably less formidable FLoyd has become since his 130 days.If he was really still the ring-maestro he's hyped by many as he would have done a number on "i've been phoning it in since i lost to mosley again" Oscar, that would have made clinics like Canto vs Betulio Gonzalez 2, Benitez vs Cervantes and so on look like life and death struggles.

Great thoughts man, I agree.

The problem I find in rating Pac extremely highly is that he has never shown total dominance in any weight division. Obviously it is hard to clearly distinguish yourself when you are fighting excellent fighters, but the fact that he has struggled with some of his peers has to be taken into acount.

Even in his best weight divisions he still struggled with Marquez and (a live) Morales. Those guys are excellent fighters but they are both overrated I feel, especially Marquez. I don't think I'd have either of them in my top 100 for instance. Same deal with Barrera. Though the way Pac did outclass Barrera in their first fight did signal Pac's class like no other fight of his did.

Got to say though, I was pretty chuffed with Pac beating Oscar down the way he did. The fight had the ring of a bully picking on a little guy at the pub and getting dropped on his arse. Embarrassing, hilarious and amazing all in one.

Agree that the Pac destruction does put the Mayweather victory in a bit more of a 'realistic' light. Oscar had deteriorated since the Floyd fight, but that PBF even struggled with Oscar at the stage showed to me that he fell short of the level many want to say he is on.

[Mantequilla]

That's a good point about Pac's struggles with Morales and Marquez.I tend to put Pac about on par with them as a fighter, at least when comparing them all head to head against the field of older super-bantams and feathers.

As good as they are\were i tend to think this '90s-'00s crop of fighters at those weights are a notch below the previous 60s to 80s fighters they get most compared to.

[Pacdbest]

Now that Pac added Hatton to his Dominated lists. How you going to rate him now?

[Tmabs]

and added to that list are his recent wins over big welters in cotto and clottey. How are you guys going to rate him now?