It is true that Manny Pacroid Pacquiao has ducked a lot of boxers on his move up in weight. This is something that many casual fans of The Pacman have no idea about because they only started following Manny when he first appeared on HBO 24/7 against Oscar De La Hoya a handpicked, big name, opponent who was weight drained.
When Manny Pacquiao was at super featherweight (130 pounds) he only fought a washed up Erik Morales(coming off of a loss to Zahir Raheem), Past it Marco Antonio Barrera, and Juan Manuel Marquez hoping he aged overnight. Manny also fought Oscar Larios who was coming up from 122 pounds to 130 pounds and Larios almost knocked Pacroid out. Manny couldnt even knock out a former super bantamweight, and people are insulting Floyd Mayweather Jr. for fighting Juan Manuel Marquez, Errol Spence Jr. fighting Mikey Garcia? But Manny cherry picked a smaller guy and almost got his ass kicked and gets a pass? cmon what a joke.
The main fighters that Pacquiao ducked and avoided at super featherweight were undefeated slick Dominican boxer Joan Guzman and a very tough Mexican Humberto Soto, both of those guys ended up fighting each other and Guzman won the fight by out slicking Soto. At the time Guzman was trained by one of the greatest boxing minds around Floyd Mayweather Sr. and Floyd and Guzman were calling Manny Pacquiao out but Manny never accepted the challenge, this was in 2007. Guzman in his prime was a very slick black fighter, so similar to Floyd Mayweather with his slick hit and not get hit style. Watch the 2007 interview, Floyd Sr. discusses Guzmans chances against Pacquiao
In 2008, when Manny was set to go up in weight to the lightweight (135 pounds) division to try and capture another world title in a different weight class he chose the paper champion David Diaz. The fight that all the boxing fans wanted to see was Manny Pacquiao versus the newly crowned unified lightweight champion Nate Campbell who beat up Juan Diaz for the belts giving him his first loss. A real old school boxer who is concerned with his legacy would have fought Nate Campbell because he was the real champion at lightweight. Pacquiao again avoided a slick black fighter. After Manny defeated David Diaz to capture the WBC title, he fought Oscar De La Hoya and forced Oscar to drain himself to 147 instead of fighting him at a more reasonable 150 pounds catchweight. The win versus Oscar was a hollow victory, all it was is another name to pad Pacquiaos record.
Shane Mosley beat up Antonio Margarito and called out Manny Pacquiao but Freddie Roach and Manny wanted no part of a guy like Mosley coming off a vicious knockout win over the most feared fighter at the time Antonio Margarito. Instead, they waited for Mosley to turn 40 years old to give him a shot.
Here is the exact quote from Freddie Roach:
Shane came to the gym twice to ask me to let him fight Manny, Roach says. I told him no both times, and both times for the same two reasons: First, there isnt enough money there, and second, youre too good a fighter. (Source: LA Times)
Some guys can really get up for a fight especially when expected to lose, the version that fought Floyd would give Manny the same kind of smothering trouble because he was 160lbs that night and has big power and fought balls to the wall, I say Manny wins but that 160lb version of Maidana was a beast against guys 150 and below.
Maybe past prime Manny like we saw pressure fighter like Horn causing him some issue... but prime for prime, Maidana gets beat up bad.
Manny would have punished Maidana at 140. Maidana was never that good. People overrate him a bit cause he beat Broner and gave old Floyd some issues but Manny beats him up bad.
Pacquiao ducked no one
He fights opponents with height, weight & reach disadvantages
PAC will always be the best pound per pound boxer of all generations
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