Manny Pacquiao's decline has been greatly over-exaggerated: A look at recent fights.

[Fooliun_Smaxon]

Skimmed over what was written, and it was hard to get by you saying it was a "great performance" against bradley. I know the subject is in regards to Manny's decline, but that was not a great performance against Bradley. Mediocre at best.

Bro, I say a great performance because Bradley is a great opponent. If you beat a guy of Bradley's calibre 9-3 or 8-4, then that is a great performance in my book.

[smoothsmg]

Bro, I say a great performance because Bradley is a great opponent. If you beat a guy of Bradley's calibre 9-3 or 8-4, then that is a great performance in my book.

At the time, Bradley was not a "great opponent." Bradley was never in a "great fight" or put on a "great performance" up until that point. Most of his fights have been ugly head butt fest with wild soft punching. His fight against Marquez was not a great showing. His fight with provo was honestly two guys sticking their heads out and taking punches (albeit a fun fight to watch). I like Bradleys resume, but he is not some ultra great opponent. And when you say great performance by Manny, i could only assume you meant the way he looked in the ring. It was an ugly dull fight with alot of missed punches by Manny and the ones that connected did not do enough damage.

[Larry the boss]

In reality Manny should still be p4p #1...His win over Rios is better then anything any other fighter in the top 10 has done recently

[Chrismart]

He's past his prime, but his decline is exaggerated. He was robbed against a top quality fighter in Bradley, and against JMM he made a mistake and was punished.

He's still a top level fighter. He's not the same fighter who beat up Cotto, or toyed with Margarito..but those fights were 4 nearly 5 years ago. So, thats expected.

[Doctor_Tenma]

It's not even debatable, I remember instances where he'll turn it on and look devastating. Look at how he split Cotto's guard open with the uppercut, that was in the early rounds, also look at how he exploded and landed the right hook that dropped Miguel. Look at how he got Hatton off of him, even against Oscar. I don't see that on and off switch; 2nd gear. I don't see the same angles, nor do I see the same conditioning, he fights in spurts now. It's more like people want to see what isn't there, no disrespect to him but he's in a sense mythical at this point.

[Larry the boss]

Manny has just been fighting the elite killers of the sport and his new found religion has made him show mercy on them,He is fighting top elite p4p type fighters and not even stepping on the gas man

[Fooliun_Smaxon]

Bradley's resume before Pacquiao was fantastic. That was the stage where he was the only man to beat, Peterson, Alexander and Abregu He also had very very solid wins over Holt and Vasquez. It was a great win for Pacquiao.

[jazluvr]

Without a doubt. The thing is Pacquiao had set such high standards with his 2008-2011 run that as soon as he let his foot off the pedal a bit people started with the decline talk.

What Pacquiao has lost a tad of is the hunger and fire he once had but is understandable. He has accomplished pretty much everything any boxer could aspire to accomplish and it gets to a point where you have nothing else to prove. You already have the respect and status you once dreamed of getting. Anything else aside from a Mayweather fight seemed uninteresting.

I do believe he is starting to feel it again after losing some of that status with the Bradley robbery and Marquez freak accident which has led people to doubt him. It's not often you get a scenario like this where one revenge fight leads to another one. Perfect stage for one to get that motivation back.

Best post in the thread.

[Larry the boss]

Fact is Manny payed the judges to rob him against Bradley,and winked at Jmm to let him know he was about to walk right into his right hand,this was all a plan to try to get Floyd in the ring. He then came back and destroyed p4p great Rios

[hugh grant]

Yea i agree Manny is still in his prime

ha ha you clown. Guys who fight as regularly tough competiton as Pac and are exciting to boot rarely last long.

Guys like FLoyd will last as long as BH if he likes. BH took up boxing late, and FLoyd rarely fights, so Floyd probably isn't in his prime yet.