Bob Arum: Manny Pacquiao Is The 2010—2019 Fighter of the Decade

“Fighter of the decade? I say Manny Pacquiao… because of [his] body of work throughout the decade, when he fought regularly; he fought all those fighters. He was the one guy that [during] the years that Mayweather retired or didn’t fight - he carried the sport. I don’t even think it is close; I don’t think anybody can compare to Manny as fighter of the decade.

It is still Manny Pacquiao fighting. And that’s the important thing whether he’s fighting for Top Rank or fighting for another promotion, it’s still Manny Pacquiao in the ring. Clearly, he’s the fighter of the decade. Manny Pacquiao belongs to the greats and will go down with the greats."

 

Uh, Manny Pacquiao is a PBC/Haymon fighter. In fact, when Pacquiao went ahead w/ the Matthysse fight WITHOUT Arum, people were saying that Arum was gonna start leaking all sorts of secrets and negativity about Pacquiao. Things are defintely not peachy between Arum and Pacquiao. Cordial, but that's it.

 

The Clottey win is a highly underrated win. Clottey was an extremely durable guy, built like a tank, hit hard, and dwarfed Pacquiao. And he was a guy w/ a watertight defense that granted, did lower his output. That Pacquiao completely shut him out and rendered him a defensive statue was an impressive feat. Lackluster on the surface due to a lack of drama, but keeping someone like that at bay is impressive. Can you imagine another fighter the size of Pacquiao forcing a guy the size of Clottey into a perpetual shell? No one beat Clottey like that. Spence was significantly bigger than Mikey. If Clottey was the size of say, Zlaticanin, and Pac threw 1,200 punches to no effect, then you can say something.

Antonio Margarito was another criminally underrated win. Margarito came into the fight in the best shape of his life. He was absolutely shredded and terrifying at the weigh in. On fight night, he enjoyed a 17 pound weight advantage over Pacquiao. It was one of Pacquiao's hardest fights, landed him in the hospital, and took something out of him. Pacquiao was shaking during the post fight interview and said that he was "lucky" to have won. Later on, in 2019, Pacquiao went further and said that he was still amazed that he "survived" the fight. I will be honest in saying this — had Pacquiao not landed that critical uppercut in the 3rd that broke Margarito's orbital bone, Pacquiao might not have seen the final bell. Margarito looked less than impressive in subsequent outings because of his eye and then his punch resistance eventually left him. Not many welterweights would have beaten Margarito that night and no 135-140 would have survived him.

The Shane win was impressive. Pacquiao's all out war style greatly benefited the bigger, harder hitting man. Shane begged for a war, but then ran for survival. That Shane was knocked out and shut out for 12 rounds was crazy.

Rios was Pacquiao's first come back fight after a year after the brutal KO loss to Marquez. Pacquiao schooled him and put on a masterclass performance w/ his boxing skills and ring IQ. 12-0 victory. No one ever beaten Rios so emphatically.

Algieri was an excellent win. Pacquiao dominated him 11-1. Algieri ran Khan close. Some say Khan lost. And Algieri boxed Pacquiao on the backfoot, but stood toe-to-toe w/ Spence. Had Algieri fought Pacquiao the same way, it would have been lights out.

The JMM fights were brutal. Pacquiao was fighting a guy who was a stylistic nightmare for him... and chemically enhanced.

Horn was a blatant robbery. Matthysse was a solid win and I agree, Pacquiao would have murked him at any point of their respective careers.

The Broner win was an excellent one. Broner's own worst enemy is himself. When he lets his hands go, he has a chance to beat ANYONE. People hate the guy, so he gets very little credit. For example, when Broner decided to let his hands go, he almost knocked out Maidana (who was drunk and surviving in the last round), hurt Mikey (last round), and dropped Porter (last round). Broner stood his ground w/ Maidana, Mikey, and Porter, but literally ran for his life from Pacquiao whilst staring down the clock. Maidana hurt Broner, but Broner never went into survival mode. A 39 year old Pacquiao shut Broner out 12-0.

Thurman was an incredible victory. Pacquiao was 40, gave up a significant advantages in size/weight/age/power. Thurman had the deepest resume of the division outside of Pacquiao. Haters point to Lopez rocking him, but it was a comeback fight and Thurman won a minimum of 9 rounds and got caught. It's boxing.

Now we come to Mayweather... How can you single out the injury, which has long been proven to be true from sparring partners, hints from Ellerbe himself, and a world renown sports surgeon who confirmed the injury and did the surgery, and not mention the fact that Mayweather was in all likelihood on PEDs? Mayweather was 150 thirty days out from fight night and showed up to the weigh in in phenomenal shape w/ zero signs of dehydration/drainage (sunken eyes and cheeks). Then he received 750 ml of IV fluids the same night and was given a TUE 17 days later? Mayweather was on PEDs and Pac was injured — he took a year off to recover.

Seems to me like you pick out certain details, but leave the critical ones out. And when you say a loss is a loss, does that mean you don't rate Duran highly all time? He does have 16 losses...

I say Pacquiao is the Fighter of the Decade for the following reasons:

His losses all come w/ asterisks — Bradley (robbery), Horn (robbery), Mayweather (PEDs + injury), and Marquez (PEDs). Too many red flags w/ Mayweather and Marquez.

Pacquiao pitched complete game shut outs against Rios, Vargas, Matthysse, Mosley, Clottey, and Broner. That's 67 rounds. He pitched near shut outs against Algieri (11-1) and Margarito (11-1).

I had him beating Mayweather. He authored the 2 most significant sequences of the match — stunning Floyd twice and ripping him w/ hard combos. The rest of the way, Pacquiao was tit for tat for punches landed w/ most of Mayweather's punches being glancing blows. Pacquiao came forward all night and Mayweather initiated 20+ clinches. Neither guy did much, but Pacquiao did more.

Pacquiao broke records:

• 5th time welterweight champion
  
• 5th time lineal champion
• Oldest welterweight champion
• Most champions fought (30)

Pacquiao did this while giving up a significant size/weight to almost every opponent for the entire decade. This is a sport where people literally freak out over a pound on the scales.

 

Floyd fought half a decade. Plus see my extra long post.

 

Pacquiao won't win or be included as a finalist because of woke culture — BWAA won't vote for him because of his pro death penalty and homophobia.

 

I disagree, though. I think Arum would push for Lomachenko (historic weight climb and P4P #1) or Crawford (undisputed in 2 divisions and P4P #1).

 

Check out my post, bro!