How come Pacquiao was able to surpass Floyd's longevity?

[R-Hand Southpaw]

Obvious answer

Protect that ZERO.

[hugh grant]

Everyone that fought Floyd has said that Floyd is a better boxer than Pac. I know it hurts but Pac is behind Floyd.

Greatness isn't about what people say.
Let's pretend in an imaginary world where dlh, cotto and hatton say floyd is the best skilled boxer they fought.
History and historians will have seen with their own eyes what pac did to them.
Historians will judge on what they saw. They won't care what was said by hatton said if he got koed in 2 rounds by pac. That's what will matter. Historians judge on what happened and what they see. Historians will conclude pac did better.

[LeOoze]

Greatness isn't about what people say.
Let's pretend in an imaginary world where dlh, cotto and hatton say floyd is the best skilled boxer they fought.
History and historians will have seen with their own eyes what pac did to them.
Historians will judge on what they saw. They won't care what was said by hatton said if he got koed in 2 rounds by pac. That's what will matter. Historians judge on what happened and what they see. Historians will conclude pac did better.

Historians will see that Pacquiao weight drained dlh and cotto. Historians may be impressed that Pac ko'd hatton in 2 rounds which took floyd 8 rounds. But historians will judge that because Floyd beat pac, has better victories, and never lost, that he is therefore better.

[NUCLEAR]

Pacquiao is just that tough.

Its the result of growing in a harsh 3rd world country.

[Dyl-G]

Pac fights for his country and things greater than himself

[famicommander]

Floyd is older and he retired while still the best fighter in the world.

You don't think Floyd could have gotten off the couch and smoked guys like Bradley, Vargas, Horn, Matthysse, Broner, or Thurman if he wanted to? Maybe a fully healthy Keef would've troubled him but not the shell of a guy that we saw against Josesito and Pac.

[pasawayako]

The steroids were catching up to Floyd. Marquez took steroids and he left soon after.

I agree....

[Monty Fisto]

There's no paradox.

Great fighters can continue further than normal through superior attributes -- and both of these guys are great fighters. The only difference in terms of how deep their pro careers went (and it's not that big a difference -- Paq's pro career is about 3 years longer at this point, taking the date of his last fight as the extent of his career) is that Mayweather called it a day at a certain point and Pacquaio has chosen to keep it going a bit longer. No more, no less.

If I was to give a simple, snappy answer it is that maybe Floyd had the incentive of protecting that 0. Great or not, the chances of taking an L start to ramp up even for the greats beyond a certain age. Paq doesn't have that legacy concern about protecting the 0 and is therefore, I would assume, a bit more cavalier when it comes to risking an L to an otherwise inferior fighter by battling on into his 40s.

[HewJohnson]

Manny still has enough offensive firepower to literally beat his foes up.

Floyd does not.

[-Kev-]

It’s by choice. Boxing is a tough sport, a very grueling sport that takes 100% to make it to the top and stay there. Floyd made way too much money to want to continue to box professionally.

Do you believe that Floyd can’t stay undefeated from 2016 through 2019 if he fought: Bradley, Vargas, Horn, Matthysse, Broner and Thurman? I am confident he could have.

Kudos to Pacquiao of course, it’s great for him that he could still fight at or near the top level. It’s amazing actually. He has a little bit of Bernard Hopkins in him in that sense. He is no longer the very best out of all the fighters around him but if you sleep on him like Thurman did, you’re not going to get the W from him.