When Pacquiao became great

After defeating a near prime Marco Antonio Barrera back in '03.

 

When he beat a PRIME Marco Antonio Barrera, not 'near' prime, let's not get on an obsessive Pacquiao hate train.

 

Near prime is not a bad thing.

Not hating on Manny at all, i give him full credit for that win, it was a great win and one of the top 5 best wins of the '00's.

 

when he stepped up 3 weight classes to humiliate cross dressing de la ***** ya.

when he beat up them mexicans knowone expected to go on to defeat and destroy margarito.

thats when fans like me took notice, and thats when steroids allegations were fresh.

 

:deal

 

Oh and that win >>>> every single win in Floyd's resume. :hi:

 

:rofl

It is clearly the best individual win between them, though.

 

Really? If Pac retired after defeating MAB at 03 he wouldn't be an ATG.

It was the fact that the 4 of them shared a competitiveness unrivaled since the fab 4 that boosted them all up especially considering he came from flyweight, compiled with the fact that he dared to be great by calling DLH's bluff and demolishing him. The rest became icing on the cake

 

"near prime" wtf!

When do you think Barrera was in his prime?

Maybe you just saying that to make us think that he was in his prime when he fought JMM?

IMHO, Barrera was in his prime when he gave Hamed the beating of his life and those two ATG fights versus Morales before the third one. The Tapia fight was a great fight too.

To reply to the thread.

I would say Pac made to the big times when he beat Barrera and Morales thr first time around. Those were great fights. Then went on to beat JMM, Cotto, Margarito and Mosley...

 

He first showed signs of greater potential when he came from behind to KO Sasakul in '98.

He first gained American attention when he annihilated Ledwaba in '01 and then viciously blew away most of the guys he fought against for the next year or two.

He leapt into a high p4p ranking by beating the **** out of Barrera in '03.

It was probably when he beat Morales in the 2nd fight in '06 that people started thinking of him as a potentially being a true great. Until that point he was dangerous as ****, because he hit hard, was fast, and had seemingly endless stamina, but he was so predictable and often crude that people felt that if you made the right adjustments, a world class fighter could hold him off with better technique. Seeing Pacquiao make adjustments to his game and overcome some of his prior limitations started getting the big talk started. By that point he was considered p4p #2 by the Ring and had been in the rankings since 03.

Although he didn't always look good in his fights right afterward, he beat a decent champion in Larios, Barrera again and slipped by Marquez, however narrowly. Then he went up to light weight and never looked better as he massacred Diaz in '08. Then he shocked the world by beating Oscar, but of course Oscar had nothing that night, so even though he was officially p4p #1, a superstar and had a huge list of champions and top contenders beaten, there was still some room for doubt about whether he was a true ATG or not.

After he destroyed Hatton in '09, there was no more doubt. Between the weight climbing, the multiple wins against ATGs, the long list of champions, ex-champs and top contenders beaten, it didn't matter how you second guessed his career, Pacquiao was a certified ATG. Anything he did after that point in his career was gravy, but he followed it up with one of the biggest wins of his career by beating Cotto.

 

When he destroyed cotto he gave himself a status that could never be removed.

I mean sure he did get outboxed by jmm on my card but it was a close fight. Other than that he'd cut a swathe through opponents from feather to welter in a buzzsaw like display of dominance. Beating clottey is also a great victory for a former flw champion.

After clottey he was never the same again. Feasted on corpses of Mosley and Margo. Outboxed then knocked out by jmm.

I think he beat Bradley and he looked the best he had for a while but still not as good as he once had looked.

 

Up through and including 130.

Nothing since his lightweight pitstop contributes to "greatness"; it's been one long dog and pony show.

 

the barrera fight was without a doubt his coming out party. The bradley fight was the beginning of the end.

 

Blowing Hatton out of the water, overwhelming Cotto, deserving a decision against Bradley, who was previously the man at 140 means nothing to you, IB? :huh

I mean, I understand objections to some of the other fights. Diaz wasn't the most deserving champ around or the best fighter at 135, (although I'd counter that it was a good testing the waters type of fight considering it was Pacquiao's first bout at lightweight) Oscar was a corpse, Clottey was a worthwhile name but he did his best imitation of a turtle, Mosley was shot, and Margarito isn't much without his special wraps. (Still worth something just for the size difference involved. Not much, but something.)

I don't get how you can second guess the Hatton, Cotto and (to a lesser extent) the Bradley fight and say they mean zero, though.