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* Since 2003, he’s 12-1 and has KO defeats of Hatton, De La Hoya, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, and he has decision victories over Marquez and Barrera. Those are almost all of the best fighters anywhere near Pacquiao’s weight class in this era.
This is while fighting at 126, 130, 140 and 147 pounds–all within the last two years, all fighting against most of the best fighters in those divisions. (Pacquiao started at 107 pounds, by the way.)
Grand summary: This isn’t a great era for boxing, but there was an excellent batch of featherweights in the early 2000s (Morales, Barrera, Marquez, Pacquiao) and now a good crop of welterweights (Mayweather, Hatton… and Pacquiao again, and maybe Marquez again) and De La Hoya was the most famous.
Pacquiao amazingly has spanned all three significant sectors of this boxing era, and been the best in each.
* Pacquiao’s only loss over that period was a disputed unanimous decision to Morales in 2005, which Pacquiao avenged with a massive TKO 10 victory in 2006.
* That’s the best resume, by far, of any current fighter, and it’s the only current resume that matches up with the busy-historic records of the greats of the ’70s and ’80s.
* The only Great Fighter of this era that’s missing from his resume is Mayweather, but:
-Pacquiao took out De La Hoya much more impressively than Mayweather’s split-decision victory in 2007 (should’ve been a clear unanimous-decision for Floyd, but wasn’t close to Pacquiao’s devastation of DLH.)
-Pacquiao waltzed through Hatton, who took Mayweather into the 10th in 2007
This is while fighting at 126, 130, 140 and 147 pounds–all within the last two years, all fighting against most of the best fighters in those divisions. (Pacquiao started at 107 pounds, by the way.)
Grand summary: This isn’t a great era for boxing, but there was an excellent batch of featherweights in the early 2000s (Morales, Barrera, Marquez, Pacquiao) and now a good crop of welterweights (Mayweather, Hatton… and Pacquiao again, and maybe Marquez again) and De La Hoya was the most famous.
Pacquiao amazingly has spanned all three significant sectors of this boxing era, and been the best in each.
* Pacquiao’s only loss over that period was a disputed unanimous decision to Morales in 2005, which Pacquiao avenged with a massive TKO 10 victory in 2006.
* That’s the best resume, by far, of any current fighter, and it’s the only current resume that matches up with the busy-historic records of the greats of the ’70s and ’80s.
* The only Great Fighter of this era that’s missing from his resume is Mayweather, but:
-Pacquiao took out De La Hoya much more impressively than Mayweather’s split-decision victory in 2007 (should’ve been a clear unanimous-decision for Floyd, but wasn’t close to Pacquiao’s devastation of DLH.)
-Pacquiao waltzed through Hatton, who took Mayweather into the 10th in 2007
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