not a top p4p but he was somewhere around top 20 that time and was a well regarded boxer coming unto the fight until pac smashed him. and pac was virtually unknown to you americans but he has been making some noise in the asian circuit back then. either way, pac was not slacking it off and he virtually stopped all his opponents then except with the case of the dirty as **** sanchez (rip).
Floyd was just competing at a grander level. But, who cares? This question will be answered when they fight each other at the end of this year!
Manny wasn't doing fighter of the decade quality things from 2000-2003, then he beat Barrera. He cleaned out the Featherweight division the same way Floyd cleaned out the Super Featherweight division. Yet, Floyd went on to clean out the Lightweight division the same way. Manny just steadily moved up and up taking on single champions to grab their belts. Floyd defeated the man to beat at welterweight in Zab Judah (Zab had three belts and the ring belt before he lost it to Baldomir) just like Manny beat the man to beat at junior welterweight in Ricky Hatton. The main reason that people see Manny so highly is because he's succeeded where people expected him to fail. Floyd hasn't been an underdog since the Corrales fight. As far as individual accomplishments, I'd say Floyd because he's dominated every single opponent he's ever faced. Manny has had some hard fought battles in the past decade with one loss to the great Erik Morales and two losses to no names. I'm going to have to go with Floyd on this one.