Last Sunday (Manila time), Manny Pacquiao cemented his legacy as one the greatest boxers in history by dismantling Antonio Margarito.
It wasn’t even close.
Right from the start, Manny employed his speed, throwing combinations and moving in and out with ease. Margarito was not able to follow their fight plan as Manny constantly moved around the ring.
The turning point was the 4th round when Margarito sustained a deep cut right below his right eye probably from a Pacman uppercut. Margarito wobbled a bit as he received torrent of punches from Pacquiao.
Margarito had his spurt moments against Pacquiao, landing some body shots but was not enough to deter Pacquiao from attacking him.
With the win, Pacquiao has won his 8th world title in as many division. No one has ever done that feat.
De la Hoya comes in at second with six division championships.
The question now is how would Pacquiao rank in the all time list?
Considering what he has accomplished over the last decade, beating great fighters and probably future hall-of-famers like Barrera, Morales, Marquez, Hatton, De la Hoya, Cotto, Clottey and now Margarito, does he make the case for the greatest of all time?
Though many experts have already tagged Pacquiao as one of the greatest fighters in boxing, many historians and pundits especially from the west will not give Pacquiao the title as THE greatest. They will still reserve that to Sugar Ray Robinson or Muhammad Ali.
Some will say that the boxers of old fought 100 or 200 fights in their career, like Robinson, so they were the greater fighters . Some will say that in terms of influence, Ali is the greatest.
Bert Sugar, a renowned boxing historian, has considered Pacquiao as the greatest southpaw of all time. One expert from Sports Illustrated though, said that he ranks Pacquiao as the third greatest southpaw, behind Hagler and Whitaker.
But if you would assess Pacquiao’s career, the opposition he has faced, the eight divisions he has conquered-a feat that perhaps will never be equalled again, the influence he has in and out of boxing, is he not really the greatest of all time?
Maybe not, or maybe at least not yet. He is still dead in his prime. He can still fight for another 3 years. While he said that he has already accomplished what he wanted in boxing, it is really mind-boggling to think that he can still do so much more. Unify the titles in 140 and 147 divisions or maybe move up to 160 for yet another division title. Dan Rafael of ESPN said it best, is there anything Manny Pacquiao can’t do?
The issue will always be subjective and debatable as in the case of who’s better between MJ and Kobe. There will always be biases. One will easily hand Pacquiao the G.O.AT. title and one will demean his accomplishments.
** Personal comment:
Perhaps if Pacquiao were an American, there would be no debate as to who’s the greatest. They would have already erected statues in every state and would have given him all the accolades a fighter can get. But we live in a fallen world after all, so it’s going to be tough for Pacquiao to be considered as the greatest from the eyes of the westerners.
I have my own bias of course. Obviously, I already consider Pacquiao as the greatest fighter that ever lived even though he’s not yet done with his career.
This is my own case.
Plus Ultra 