Sugar Ray Leonard is the more versatile fighter and has the better career resume for me. His quality of wins is greater than Pacquiao
Manny was the 2nd best fighter of this century’s, after Mayweather. But Sugar Ray Leonard was the greater fighter. Manny certainly has the advantage in longevity. But Leonard’s top victories surpass Pacquiao ‘s best wins. Manny also suffered 3 knockout losses during his career. I rank Leonard no.8 all time, and I rank The Pac-Man around number 30.
If he did it during Leonard's era, and especially during Henry Armstrong's, most knowledgeable fans would be impressed..... The last 20 yrs? Not so much.
That still ranks him over dozens of other outstanding fighters. At best I could put him around 24 or 25.—Mark
Manny Pacquiao suffered 2 of them KO losses very early in his career, one of them when he was only 17 years old. His 2nd stoppage was when he was 20, he was still a very young/raw fighter at that point and obviously improved alot. As his 3rd stoppage loss wasn't until 13 years later. I don't really see why you would hold them 2 stoppage losses against him, when ranking him personally.
Dynamicpuncher, he was certainly an extraordinary fighter, I am not trying to disparage him at all. The fighters that I rank ahead of him are also extraordinary.—Mark
I don’t know what the list looks like, but I’ll just say that if Pernell Whitaker is ahead of him, it’s a very wrong list.
At what weight ? remember Pacquiao's best weight isn't Welterweight, so that's unfair to Pacquiao. We might aswell say put Leonard against the best Middleweights of all time, or the best Super Middleweights of all time. Because Leonard fought there and see how he would fare, do you see how that's unfair for Leonard ? well its exactly the same for Pacquiao. Now just for an example i'm gonna use "Super Featherweight" for Manny Pacquiao, as i feel that's one of his best weights and had some of his best wins, to transport him back to the late 70s and early 80s when Leonard fought at his best weight. And looking at the rankings for Super Featherweights during that era, the only fighter i think who possibly beats Pacquiao is Arguello. But Arguello also had some issues vs Southpaws Ramirez, Ganigan, so it would of been interesting. The other exciting Super Featherweights of that era like Chacon, Edwards, Limon, do not beat Pacquiao. Lockridge was too green at that time, and the only other threat would be Camacho which would be an amazing fight. And a tough fight to pick maybe i'd give the edge to a prime Camacho, but other than that Pacquiao would fit in very nicely in this era and would win more often than not.
My issue was you brought up that Pacquiao was stopped 3 times in his career, i don't really see how that's relevant in ranking Pacquiao. Two of them losses was when he was very young, one of them as i said when he was a 17 year old boy. If you want to rank SRL over Pacquiao that's fair enough, personally i think Pacquiao's longevity and achievements edge it for me. But bringing up Pacquiao's 2 early stoppages shouldn't really be relevant just my opinion.
I mean, the Torrecampo loss occurred in the early stages of his career, but losing badly to Medgoen when it was already established that he was world class is something that should be noted. Yes, Manny improved as a fighter in the years that followed, but it's not something that can or should be dismissed.
