why anyone thinks the first morrales fight, or even the knockout losses, are relevant, is beyond me. anyone who thinks pac as he is now, would've lost to morrales, is idiotic. pac now is in the form of his life and has an aura of invincibility. people can claim that hatton, de la hoya and even cotto are shot/ damaged goods. but the truth is, hatton and cotto had come off amazing victories. hatton just schooled malignaggi. the #2 rated LW at the time. cotto just edged a fight against clottey, who is a fukin beast. neither of them are shot. pacman is just that good. his career prior to the victory over marquez, is that of a very good fighter. but since then, he has dominated everyone and is definately the best fighter today, perhaps ever.
but, but he ducked Guzman!...................................................Obviously being sarcastic here.
Pac fought Morales 9 months after he lost to him and knocked him out, so the point is moot. Morales fought a great fight but I've always felt that Pacquiao was not well adjusted the new weightclass and also hampered by a cut above the eye that was caused by a clash of heads in round 5. Take away those factors and I believe he would have won the fight. Of course thats just an opinion, fact is Morales beat Pacquiao 115-113 on all cards.
I agree, Morales and JMM always get mentioned for praise whenever Pac gets these big wins. Respect to both fighters but.... Morales's stock was cut-off from Pac since the JMM II fight and JMM's stock has been cut-off from Pac since the DLH fight.
The Morales fight is relevant for Morales legacy. Pack was near his physical prime, but was still green. I'd compare it to Schmeling's win over Louis. It elevates Morales a lot, but doesn't have a terrible impact on Pac's legacy.
Pacquiao's resume is great, end. But the Morales win is very significant, to Morales that is. What a win. Even if he has improved by a mile (Pac), you can't knock Morales' win there.
But you cant rise it either, people keep bringing it up whenever Pac does something great, its a great win no doubt but its still a no greater win than Barrera over Hamed. Otherwise Torrecampo and Singsurat are 1st ballot HoFs.
Not at all irrelevant. Pac has clearly developed as fighter, but then so did Barrera, Morales and Marquez over the course of their careers. Pac's almost unique advantage is that he is MUCH better at weight-climbing. Two utterly separate aspects. Truth be told, Pac-Barrera 1 was an ambush, MAB underestimated him and didn't make that same mistake nearly 4 years later, therefore 4 years even further past his prime. Erik was shot to **** after a decade of wars, and JMM...well, his record against Manny speaks for itself. The Mexi's were all at the tail-ends of their careers, and it showed. I'd favour a prime Morales ('02) over ANY version of Pac at 130Ibs. He already showed how Pac can be beaten; by fighting smart, and not being shopworn/OTH.
Manny wasn't green, he had already had 43 fights. It was the last hurrah of EM's glorious career, don't try to take it away from him.
Yeah i wasn't comparing the win to anything else. Just acknowledging that Morales' win is a great one.