Why won't Pacquiao move to Welterweight?

[PD21]

If catchweights are crucial in making the fight happen then I dont really have a problem with it. There 1 time it was clearly garabge though was when they gave Pac the light middleweight title even though he didnt weigh in within the weight category of 147-154. Yet they still gave him the title. His opponent was worthy having come off a 1 sided beatdown from Mosley and he wasnt allowed to weigh above 150. The whole thing was just a joke to make Pacs record look more impressive in history. Made me think that if he weighed 144 and won the light middle title, might they give him a middleweight title in the furure or a light heavyweight title but he can weigh in at 144 or whatever he likes. The opponet can just be any washe dup bum who is weight drained and coming off a loss. Without that his achievements would be more credible but when you look further into it you see its all politics.

[The Nature Boy]

All this thread proves is an argument can be made that Manny was feasting on smaller guys between 04-08, and waited until all the real threats at Lightweight or Jr WW loss or vacated. I've been saying for a while how much credit do we give the guy for those wins @ 126-130, when he was re hydrating 10 or sometimes 15 pounds overnight? Not to mention, half of the fighter listed, were beat by Floyd who he has yet to face.

[Bombs]

Because everybody at Welterweight would slaughter his small ass, AND he wouldnt hit nearly as hard up there

Great thread.

[southpaw!!]

its crazy how times went from

"pac is fighting small, old featherweights. if he moves up to ww he would get his ass kicked by margarito, mosley, cotto"

"he would be a midget to the ww's, no way pacquiao ever moves up"

to

"pac is cherry picking opponents. martigarito is garbage, cotto is coming off a beating, mosley is only there for the paycheck"

"pac is on something, how can he gain so much weight in 10 months. thats 12 lbs of lean muscle, he's on something"

im just gonna sit back and enjoy the show. this is comedy

[southpaw!!]

All this thread proves is an argument can be made that Manny was feasting on smaller guys between 04-08, and waited until all the real threats at Lightweight or Jr WW loss or vacated. I've been saying for a while how much credit do we give the guy for those wins @ 126-130, when he was re hydrating 10 or sometimes 15 pounds overnight? Not to mention, half of the fighter listed, were beat by Floyd who he has yet to face.

bahaaaaahaahhahhhah

let the hate out of ur heart!!

first he was picking on smaller guys. he moves up and now he's fighitng shot opponents.

you're like that ****ty ex girlfriend.... ur never satisfied. u could get ****ed by a **** made out of diamond and u'll still complain about how it hurts.

[American Dream]

its crazy how times went from

"pac is fighting small, old featherweights. if he moves up to ww he would get his ass kicked by margarito, mosley, cotto"

"he would be a midget to the ww's, no way pacquiao ever moves up"

to

"pac is cherry picking opponents. martigarito is garbage, cotto is coming off a beating, mosley is only there for the paycheck"

"pac is on something, how can he gain so much weight in 10 months. thats 12 lbs of lean muscle, he's on something"

im just gonna sit back and enjoy the show. this is comedy

GTFOH...he faced those names at an entirely different time line.
He didn't face them coming off some impressive win..cotto was damaged by a cheat..Marg was KOd by Mosley...and coming off that win..Pac and Roach blatantly ducked him..until Floyd schooled him...you have to factor in the time and circumstances.

[ThePrince]

Pacquiao would get slaughtered at lightweight, let alone jr. Middle Weight, and him fighting anyone at Welter is suicide. They are stronger, more talented, faster, and bigger, and better up there than he is..

Funny how now you write long essays about how Pacquiao is cherry picking/picked the same 'stronger, more talented, faster, and bigger, and better' fighters from lightweight up once he DESTROYED them. You're not fooling anyone, Horus.

What a clown

[MindBat]

bahaaaaahaahhahhhah

let the hate out of ur heart!!

first he was picking on smaller guys. he moves up and now he's fighitng shot opponents.

you're like that ****ty ex girlfriend.... ur never satisfied. u could get ****ed by a **** made out of diamond and u'll still complain about how it hurts.

It's a shame you guys have to rescue Manny cause he can't speak for himself nor tries to prove he can beat opponents without having to drain them.

[Brother Jay]

While I agree with you that there are SOME things that Pacquiao's done in weight manipulation, I can honestly only think of a few that were/might've been affected by the weight issue.

Oscar de la Hoya- To be honest, a lot of us thought this would be a one-sided affair in Oscar's favor. In hindsight, we pulled out the "Oh, well...Oscar hadn't made that weight in years." And yes, he hadn't. So, I guess Freddie was more sly than we thought.

Cotto- To this day, I don't understand why Cotto was the only welterweight fighter that had to weigh in at 145 (two pounds under the welterweight limit). I'm not saying the fight would've been drastically different, but it just irks me. Why did he then allow Clottey and Mosley to come in at 147? That little thing just annoys me a bit...

Margarito- fighting for a 154 title at a 150 lbs. catchweight?! What the hell? 150 is closer to 147 than 154 for cripes' sake. But whatever...

And now, Márquez at 144...

The only fighters Pacquiao's beaten at their real weight class (since Oscar) have been Hatton, Clottey, and Mosley.

Not hating on Pacquiao, no fighter out there can do the things he's been able to do (with/without catchweight), but the way they toy with weights bothers me a little bit.

At the end of the day (and I've said this before), I'm just grasping at straws. Because the fact is, nobody is nowhere near Pacquiao's feats and he has certainly exceeded expectations and gone to where people never expected him to.

Let me ask you this TintaBoriqua:

You think that Pacquiao has perform great feats?

My question is against who?

Not for nothing, I think his fights are exciting and action packed.

With that said, 5 out of his 8 championships are VACANT TITLES. The importance of noting that is because when you compete for a vacant title, you face an opponent, not a champion.

YOU CANNOT BE CONSIDERED A CHAMPION UNLESS YOU BEAT A CHAMPION!

Its a common practice in boxing where a heavily promoted fighter under a big promoter sidesteps a showdown with the division champion in favor of seeking a belt that has been vacated ... which usually involves facing a lesser fighter.

I don't care if a fighter goes on to defend that vacant belt, he's still only defending a vacant title which holds little to no weight. Casual boxing fans COMPLETELY overlook this because they don't understand that to be the man you must beat the man.

TintaBoricua, you've already acknowledged that Roach and Pacquiao have manipulated weight in several matches.

However have you taken into consideration that Pacquiao fought club fighters for his first 40 fights mostly in southeast Asia? You haven't even heard of one of his opponents until he fought Barrera. Did you know that? That's a hell of a lot of padding considering that some top fighters have faced world champions with under 20 fights!

If that isn't enough, was it a great feat when Pacquiao fought the then still-banned Margarito in Texas for a vacant jrMW title that neither man was in contention for? If that wasn't a manufactured bout then I don't know what is. A banned cheater desperate for money. A catchweight king desperately needing a body in the ring to stay on top after Mayweather's domination of Mosley. Arum's willingness to grease palms in Texas for them to allow the cheater to compete DURING his ban.

How about the fact that every big name boxer that Pacquiao fought only secured the fight with Pacquiao ONCE AND ONLY ONCE THEY LOST THE BIGGEST MATCH OF THEIR CAREERS?

And BTW, just because a boxer exceeds certain fan's expectations that only exist because they expected Manny's opponents to be able to come in at WHATEVER WEIGHT THAT THEY FELT COMFORTABLE AT doesn't mean that he's done anything special.

The whole appeal of what Pacquiao was doing upon arriving at 147 was facing bigger, stronger men. What Roach and Arum did was sell that line to the fans, but deliver cleverly marketed catchweight fights that totally negated the whole "David Vs Goliath" aspect that they were selling.

If you claim to be fighting DLH, who Floyd fought at 170+lbs, but don't promote the fact that DLH will be coming in at 145lbs, a weight he hadn't competed at in 7 years, then its called a "bait and switch". Same **** with Cotto.

Maybe you should reconsider the conditions under which Pacquiao performed those "great feats" that you feel that no one is close to. Pacquiao is fun to watch but being willing to trade and engage without caution doesn't make what you've achieved in your career special or great. It means you come to fight.

That's it.

[The Nature Boy]

bahaaaaahaahhahhhah

let the hate out of ur heart!!

first he was picking on smaller guys. he moves up and now he's fighitng shot opponents.

you're like that ****ty ex girlfriend.... ur never satisfied. u could get ****ed by a **** made out of diamond and u'll still complain about how it hurts.

Re-hydrating overnight as much as 10-15 pounds against guys like Morales in 06, is a good indicator that Pacquiao was the naturally bigger guy to begin with. All of the sudden, he move up and fights guys like Diaz, Hatton, and De La Hoya and becomes the same size.



All this proves, is Pacquiao could of been comfortably competing at 135 or even 140 years earlier, when there were guys like Diaz, CasaMayor, Corrales, and Castillo all slugging it out in 06-07.