Lance Armstrong broke the Tour De France record. Michael Jordan was greater than any basketball player before him. Roger Federer broke the Grand Slam tennis record. Tiger Woods has broken many golf records. Michael Phelps broke the number of gold medals in one Olympic. Usain Bolt broke the 100 meter dash record. Should we not then expect that the greatest players or athletes are among the current or future generations, and not of those of the past??? Records are meant to be broken, and standards are meant to be raised. That's evolution and progress. Is Pacquiao on that course, or has he already reached it? What will it take for Pacquiao to be the #1 ATG in boxing? Be fair and honest. Thanks.
If he beats mayweather convincingly I would say that PAC has a good case at being one of the top 5 fighters of all time.. Which is quite a feat
It's not possible because no current or future fighter will ever follow a career as ambitious as Sugar Ray Robinson. It's perfectly plausible that fighters from the future will be "better". But no-one will ever look that good on paper. On a related note, I'd have Ray Leonard at 50 % to beat Robinson in a H2H hypothetical.
I don't know if he has a chance to do that right now, but if he could beat Mayweather convincingly, then assuming Shane still looks good against Berto, beats Shane convincingly he would be in the top 5. Probably #5, getting to the top 3 probably isn't doable.
IMO, it's unfair to compare modern ATGs with the ATG's of boxing's "Golden Era" of the early to mid 20th century. Boxers don't fight every month anymore & they never will again...
It's not a question of beating the best fighters over the course of a few years, it's being a force of nature, fighting scores of times. Look at the careers of SRR, Pep, Greb and Armstrong for an example.
How about if we add Antonio Margarito, Collazo, Juan Diaz, and Malignaggi to the list? Will that be enough?
And here in lies one of the major problems. Even if fighters did fight as often as they did before right now Pac simply doesn't have the level of competition left to get that far. I mean no offense to Mayweather, Mosley, and the other majors in the WW division, but beating them just isn't enough. I mean maybe if he unified both WW and Jr WW in some spectacular fashion and then ruled over the weight class fighting all those who oppose him for a good number of years he might hope on cracking top 3 or top 2 and even that's pushing it. I doubt many people would be willing to ever put him above Sugar Ray Robinson just because the guy is that legend that no one is willing to displace.