On 15 November,2003..the rise of Manny Pacquaio began with an impressive knock out win over undisputed featherweight champ and P4P ruler Marco Antonio Barrera..who had been on an 11 fight winning run..beating the likes of Morales,Tapia and Hamed. 1.Do you think Roach should get more credit from turning Pacman from a one dimensional slugger to a offensive boxer-puncher HOFer? 2.What was the reason behind this one sided ferocious beatdown? 3.How did Pacquiao beat prime barrera but lose to a shot morales? 4.What upset in the current boxing world could match the upset result of this fight...GGG Moving up dominating and koing Ward?
Pacquiao is still relatively one dimensional, I think in that first fight with Barrera Pacquiao's combination of speed and power simply overwhelmed MAB like most Pacquiao opponents. Both fighters took some good shots but early Pacquiao's heart/will drove him through a lot of fights. He had sort of the Roy Jones effect early on where athletically he was so far past his opponents at the lighter weights they couldn't keep up. As far as the Morales fight most great fighters have one last harrah in them and I think for Erik that first Pac fight was his after so many fights and wars I'm sure its hard to keep getting up the motivation to push themselves to the limit time and again look at Pacquiao himself in recent years and his steady decline til he ultimately loss two straight
1. Roach has gotten plenty of credit for developing Manny's right hand and all around boxing ability. He's won multiple trainer of the year honors and is in the Hall of Fame largely because of Manny's career. 2. Barrera could not handle Manny's speed and power. But to call the fight a one sided ferocious beatdown is an exaggeration. 3. Morales was not shot. He was just coming off his third Barrera fight and looked great, even though he lost a close decision. Before fighting Manny, he had only lost twice in his career, two close decisions to Barerra. Morales just fought a great fight against Manny that night. In their rematches, Morales struggled to make weight and had started to slide. Plus Manny had developed his right hand with Roach and was a more complete fighter. 4. No. Some kid no one has ever seen before coming out of nowhere and beating in convincing fashion a top PFP and poster boy for boxing.
I don't know... Maybe like a Koki Kameda beating Rigondeaux, Moises Fuentes beating Roman Gonzalez, or Robert Guerrero beating Bradley. This is wrong. Pacquiao was already a 2 weight champion with two of his better wins in Sasakull and Ledwaba.
4. Ricky Burns moving upto Welterweight and beating Floyd Mayweather. I favor Mayweather but only slightly via robbery.
