Quality and Greatness of Pacquiao.

The purpose of this thread is to assess how great Manny Pacquiao which will make the skeptics reconsiders their position on the guys’ quality and greatness. I am not going to discuss about “how Pac started at 106 lbs and moved up all the way to 147”. Nor would I emphasize on Pac’s 7 titles in 7 weight classes which had been debated to death in this forum. I will not use these points as a topic because these stellar achievements are too readily written of by cynics on reasons that Pac was a teenager when he started at 106, and how he naturally grew when his body matured in time. No, the question posed by this thread is something else. In March 2008, Manny Pacquiao escaped a razor thin SD win over JMM, in which a KO spelled the difference between victory and defeat. Now I am not goin’ to debate back and forth about this issue. But in any case all of us here can agree upon that it was a very even fight, and that the public was split on who the winner was albeit some were making their choice based on their emotional attachment for the fighter. It doesn’t really make any difference for this thread since we can all agree that it was an even fight, and Pac had difficulties in securing that victory. At this time, Miguel Cotto had just beaten Shane Mosley in the 4th defence of his WBA welterweight title, and was 30-0, and an established member of the pound-for-pound rankings. In fact he was ranked in the top 5 P4P list consistently At this time, Joshua Clottey had just won an IBF welterweight title eliminator fight, and would go on to beat Zab Judah for the title later that year. In recent fights, Clottey had given Margarito all kinds of trouble before sustaining an injury, and soundly beaten Diego Corrales. Now, think about this to what you thought of Pac, Cotto and Clottey in March 2008. Consider the circumstances surrounding each man at that time. Pac, fresh from a very close and very tough fight at superfeather which many felt he was on the downside of his career. Also think that he was already being written off from his prime after a lackluster performance against MAB(rematch) one fight before that . And then use that to think about Cotto, one of the best welters and best fighters in the world fresh off a deserved win over Mosley. And Clottey, one of the most feared and avoided welters in the world with the IBF title in his sights. Now, imagine what you would have said back in March 2008 when someone pointed out that within a year or two, Pac will share the ring with Cotto, and Clottey, and out of the 24 rounds he would fight against them, he would only lose 1 or 2 rounds. In these times of internet forums and haters and fanboys and nuthuggers and the Pac vs Floyd drug debate, and all that bullshit, it's very easy to lose sight of cold hard achievements that are being made under our very noses. Once Pacquiao has retired, and the internet goons are fighting each other about newer fighters, history will of course look very, very kindly on his achievements. But I think if even the most hate-filled bastard on this forum considers what he would have said in March 2008 to the prediction that Manny Pacquiao would win 22 or 23 rounds out of 24 against Miguel Cotto and Joshua Clottey, he would recognize that we are living in the era of a serious, serious ATG.