Pacquiao was a featherweight gorging himself to fight big names at higher weights. Catch weights are just an attempt to level the playing field a little bit.
I blame Lemieux, these are his catchweight fights: vs Moody - 158 vs Availa - 162 vs Cezares - 162 vs McCrary - 162 vs Contreras - 163 vs Naugler - 166 vs Smichet - 164 vs Gates - 163 vs Zepada - 162 vs Gaona - 164 vs Ayrapetyan - 161 vs Swierzbinski - 164 vs Upshaw - 162 vs Torres - 162 vs Rios - 164 vs Reyes - 163 vs Achour - 162
It wasn't tons lol, I'd say five fights max. He often came in well under the contracted weight for those fights as well.
I also hearken back to Sugar Ray Leonard Vs Donny Lalonde, where a 168lbs catchweight was placed on a light heavyweight champion and the new super middleweight division was created so another title could be on the line to falsely pump up the number of divisions he managed to become a champ in.
This content is protected Mayweather (152) Angulo (155) Lara (155) Kirkland (155) Cotto (155) Khan (155) Chavez Jr. (164.5) This content is protected Cotto (145) Marquez (144 — Marquez's demand) 150 (Margarito — Margarito was 17 pounds heavier on fight night) Algieri (144) Not to mention that Clenelo imposed short training camps, had bricks in his gloves, hung crippling rehydration clauses around opponents' necks, AND tested positive for PEDs. Pac never really benefited from catchweight as he was still the smaller fighter in those fights. Clenelo is the Catchweight King.
Did it damage the other fighter though? The way Pacquiao did his opponents and the way Floyd did to Canelo?
There have been catchweight fights all the way back to the days of Walcott, McGovern,Gans and co thats 100 years ago and even before... The OP is clearly a noob/casual who doesnt know **** about boxing.
Mayweather haters say he drained opponents, yet seems to get more hate than Pac on this issue and had less catchweight fights than Pac. In response to the OP, no, Pac is not to blame. Remember, it takes to to make a catchweight fight.