Pacman GBOAT

By Paul Sims
www.octaringsports.blogspot.com

After facing the Tijuana Tornado last Nov 13, 2010 that turned out to be a one sided beating in favor of Pacquiao; an idea of dubbing him as the Boxing best ever loomed out again. A widely debate spurred all over the media especially with the so called Boxing experts as I myself turned to wonder how do we compare a boxer that by now reached 8 world titles in different divisions but merely fought 57 fights, into a boxer who fought more or less 200 fights reigning 2 or more divisions.

Those persons I picked as my top 2 closest with Pacquiao’s legacy would be Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong. It would bring much wider picture by breaking down their resume.

Robinson has a record of 175-19-6-2 with 109 KOs and almost fought a no contest bouts. Out of his first 123 fights he only had one loss. Most of the respected personalities, scribes, and even boxers consider him as the best Boxer of all time, and to name a few, it would be Bert Sugar, Mohammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Kevin Iole, and ESPN. He dominated both welterweight and Middleweight division (first ever 5 time champion). Additionally, the Ring Magazine ranked him as the best Pound for Pound fighter of all time; in fact the term “Pound for pound” was coined after him, he was also regarded as the Greatest Puncher in boxing history. He was indeed a very charismatic person to the point that many regard him as the first African-American to get mixed up outside the sports such as involvement with Celebrities, business and many more. His name Sugar was attributed by the greats Sugar Leonard, Sugar Shane Mosley, and even the UFC fighter Sugar Rashad Evans. However, he was stopped for the light heavyweight title on 1952.

Armstrong aka Hammerin Hank, is a hard puncher boxer who won titles for three or more divisions. I remember Larry Merchant tagged Pacquiao as the modern Henry Armstrong of our generation. With 149 wins, he managed to get a KO record of 101 which means a hugely great KO percentage. He even KOed 21 opponents in 22 bouts, 6 or more knockouts in a row in different circumstances, so on and so forth. Many believed his accomplishments ranked him either top 1 or 2 greatest boxer of all time, though was not as firmed and leverage as Robinson.

Manny Pacquiao- BWAA fighter of the decade, the first boxer in the history to hold eight world divisions title crushing legends such as Barrera, Morales, Dela Hoya, and Miguel Cotto. Critics recently stated that most of his opponents have been cherry picked by Bob Arum that brought him into easy fights without even looking further back. His first limelight was against the former Jr. Featherweight champ Ledwaba as the only replacement of his original opponent. Afterwards he moved up to Featherweight division fighting the highly favored Barrera and won via TKO. After beating David Diaz in Lightweight division, everyone thought the apparently fight against Delahoya was absurd, many considered as a joke but eventually appeared on the other way around. The next fight was Hatton, and people started to name it as Pacquiao’s first acid test against a natural 140 welterweight with perfect record in that division. After stunning Hatton out cold in the very first round, he challenged a once one of the most avoided body puncher Miguel Cotto which was natural at 147. Never would I ever thought Cotto was being cherry picked by Pacquiao since I have never thought of anyone else that would deserved a fight against him at 147 aside from Mayweather. Cotto was not a bum fighter, Pacquiao was just too much for him and moving all the way to Middleweight say against Williams will be too much too quick for him. Hence, as the time goes on I absolutely believed that we will reach the moment of seeing him fighting Martinez if not against Mayweather.

The main difference between fighters now and then is the fight intervals. Robinson and Armstrong fought way frequently in compare to Pacquiao with sometimes only one week interval and rounds actually lasted till 15 rounds.

These endless debates will remain forever. Pacquiao as the Best of this Era, legacy yes so far, but as a fighter he must fight Mayweather or Martinez first in order to get my big nod.