Antonio Tarver: If Manny Pacquiao Beats Errol Spence, He's The GOAT.

Disregarding numbnuts' idiotic post I just quoted, I already have Manny in or around the top 20 fighters of all time. I do not see him winning this fight, though.

 

Your obsession over Pac and Mayweather rivalry has skewed your opinion.

He was old vs Horn and lets be honest most people had him winning that fight.

Ask yourself why people like Pac, he didn't speak English for most of the early part of his career, he's from a country that doesn't really have much of a boxing history yet so many fans around the world became a fan of him. Pac has so many fans because he tested himself again and again against the best. He didn't need catch weights to drain opponents, he didn't wait for guys to show clear decline before making a fight. Pac is popular because he earned it and left little room for criticism.

Pac has more than just longevity he could of retired years ago and still be seen as an ATG. His fights with MAB, Morales, JMM, his move up to welter to convincingly beat much bigger men in Cotto, Margarito, Mosley etc. That alone put him in the great bracket.

I agree Pac wasn't the best fighter of his era, Mayweather to me has always been a better fighter even before they fought. But Pac is fighting up beyond his natural weight, he's fighting a division or 2 above his true weight and still at top level. His achievements for me surpass Mayweather's. Much like Duran's achievements to many surpass SRL's but Leonard was the better fighter, partly because he was just naturally bigger and Duran was fighting above his peak weight.

On the contrary if Mayweather has shown the level of ambition and desire to prove he was truly great and always fought the best available and not used catch weights or waited for guys to show clear decline he would probably be rated above Pac even if he had the odd loss. If Mayweather did what Pac has done he'd be fighting at middleweight for most of the final part of his career, fought GGG and that's why Pac has the fans respect he's pushed himself to the very limit of his ability which is why he's picked up losses he hasn't played it safe, just fighting at his natural weight while using his status to leverage further advantages.

Look at Pac now, 2 years out and fighting the biggest welter out there who at worst is the 2nd best welter now, while Mayweather after time out came back and fought JMM a guy coming up 2 divisions to fight him and even then Mayweather didn't make weight to increase his advantage. That's the difference in mentality between Pac and Mayweather and fans will always respect the former approach more.

 

I find it hilarious the people saying Pac will lose, will be the first ones to trash Spence if Pac wins.

 

All of this is irrelevant when discussing the GOAT, who cares about speaking the language. Pac's resume doesn't qualify as GOAT status. Duran beat SRL which is arguably one of the best wins of all time. Pac doesn't have a win within a 100000 light years of that. We saw Pac lose to fighters he had no business losing to a no hoper in Torrecampo he was KTFO against and he KTFO against Singsurat these are facts they can't be swept under the rug because they hurt your argument they have to be taken into consideration. He also lost to a faded Erik Morales and drew with Sanchez and never beat JMM clearly. Pac has longevity but that is just one aspect of it because if that's the case why are you not talking about Hopkins as the GOAT because he had longevity? Pac is more popular and well liked so people like you give him extra credit for hanging around but don't do the same for Hopkins. You have yet to counter my argument about if Pac had PBF's career and resume and PBF's had his would people say PBF is the GOAT? Pac is still fighting for one because he needs the money he was ripped off by Arum for years and blew through the money he had by giving it away. If he had 200 million in the bank he wouldn't still be fighting.
This is more about the horrible disrespect given to far superior and greater fighters like SRL, Ali being talking down on and people saying a guy like Pac is > and the GOAT which is ridiculous when he doesn't have the resume or skills to back that up.

 

You can’t argue with people that want to make Pac the GOAT. They either don’t understand the history of boxing or are irrational.

 

Pac may not be flat broke but he doesn't have the type of money he should have for his career, due to mismanagement. If Pac could earn big money paydays for exhibitions like PBF did then he would do the same. Hell Pac still wants to fight Connor to this day. If he had the choice of fighting Connor or Spence you would be a fool to think he wouldn't pick Connor. Why? Because he would make way more money fighting Connor and take much less damage.

 

Most are fanboys with an agenda.