Pacquiao in his physical prime

He's like Jackie Chan now

 

He was like Bungisngis in these days.

When that A-side meth was Heisenbergesque.

 

The last of his prime may have been misinterpreted. By 2007, Roach IMO had settled Pac down. A lot! He was accused of having bad balance, to which I never agreed. I saw it as a dude who felt compelled to get the last shot in, regardless of his footing.

Roach tamed him down, not corrected his balance. IMO he had & has always had sound footwork and great balance. So as a result some of us think he has had some resurgence, not really. Bradley, Algieri, Mayweather, Bradley again & Vargas didn't really accommodate a style that allowed Pac to throw punches in bunches. For the most part they were looking to counter not initiate let alone stand and trade.

Horn provided us with it, but his inside game aloud some roughhouse tactics and Thurman who wanted to be the bigger man, offered us a chance to see that maybe Pac didn't really lose much. He just had a few years where he went against counter punchers that minimized the chance of seeing the Pacmanian Devil at work.
What a wonder at his age. Or has 40 become the new 30!

 

It’s obvious his physical prime was 122-130 in terms of pure physical advantages. BRB, taller, longer, hit harder p4p, can take the hardest punches, unlimited stamina.

Now imagine a WW version could KD guys with iron chins equivalent to MAB and Morales p4p, that be like him being able to blitz someone like Danny Garcia, making his chin seem like something that he could easily break. Meanwhile Pac looked like his power had no effect on rios. Then he would be on average 5’9 tall, so no height or reach disadvantage. He would weigh around 160 fight night. He’d take horn and Thurman to 20 rounds. And he can take Thurman power and bang his gloves, raise his hands, laugh at it and ask for more, not talk about how heavy it was after the fight.

Anyone who thinks that Pac suddenly improved when he went up weight is delusional. His skills improved. His speed relative to opponents improved. That’s it. His chin and power is FAR below p4p. At WW he’s a threat of getting hurt, at FW, JMM and Morales landed bombs on him and didn’t even buckle him.

 

What a privilege to watch tho
Pacquiao

 

Him and Sandy Saddler were absolute top 2 physical freaks at the weight. In different ways too.

Thinking about it, that's a good fantasy match up.

 

I agree that Pac has outstanding footwork and balance. If he didn't, doing the things that he does, he should be knocked down in almost every fight. But he's near impossible to knock down.

 

His durability, toughness, heart, etc. All incredible. His offensive motor and to keep such a confrontational high work rate as he zoomed up the divisions is stunning.

 

Coincidentally those were the years where he denied random testing.

Not to mention his head grew triple the size.

 

Canelo failed 2 drug tests and then pulled out of VADA testing after he looked pedestrian against a severely compromised Jacobs that was crippled by a rehydration clause.

 

Canelo fan talking about pac on peds haha.

 

Pac in the 10 year span from 1997 to 2006 had 27 victories with 25 (93%) coming by knockout.

By comparison in the 10 year span from 2010 to 2019 he's had 12 victories with only 1 (8%) by knockout.