Another interesting interview tidbit re: Pacquiao's ducking

Another interesting perspective from today's interview:

"There's been a lot of talk about Pacquiao avoiding the best challenges lately to fight lesser fighters. Who would you say is most to blame for that?"

"To be honest, I don't think that's an entirely true statement. You have to consider both the opponent and the weight class. Welterweight isn't what it used to be. It's been effectively cleaned out. The problem is that there wasn't any one person who cleaned it out. We were supposed to get a king from that division, and the opportunity was there for a king to arise from that division. It was Mayweather's for the taking. Instead, Mayweather he retired and let the entire division self-destruct. Cotto beat Mosley, Margarito beat Cotto, Mosley beat Margarito, Williams beat Margarito, Quintana beat Williams, Williams beat Quintana. The entire division, instead of being cleaned up, simply collapsed. Nobody rose up and dominated, and that golden opportunity was completely laid to waste. Can you imagine if Mayweather beat all of them back in 2006-2007? The kind of legend he would have created for himself? Pacquiao came late to that rodeo, and instead of finding a rich landscape of great fighters who were there only the year or two before, instead it was filled with fighters with broken reputations scattered between welterweight and junior middleweight. In my view, Pacquiao did his best to beat every big name there. The problem was that all the big names beat each other already and full credit wasn't there for anybody to claim anymore. Because of that, any fight Pacquiao took, there would always be people who would be outraged that he took the fight because "x" already beat him. They fail to consider that none of the top fighters in that deep division emerged without a loss. All Pacquiao had available to him were fighters who lost one of their previous three fights. Even with that, if you look at the welterweight achievements of all of today's active fighters, Pacquiao beat more top 10 welterweights since he became a welterweight than any other fighter. He wasn't just taking soft touches"

"OK, but what about people who say that Pacquiao was fighting at catchweights. Doesn't that harm his accomplishments?"

"I would agree with that in the case of Cotto, because it was unnecessary in my view. I don't think it compromised Cotto as a fighter, but I do think it compromised the perception of the win, which is just as important. De la Hoya was compromised, but it wasn't a catchweight, he wasn't a top welterweight, and the compromizing was his own fault, so it was a non-event for me. The catchweight for Margarito if anything worked in Margarito's favor. Physically, I've never seen Margarito look so good and by his own admission, he was in better shape against Pacquiao than againt Mosley. I think too much was made of the catchweights"

"And as you mentioned, De la Hoya wasn't actually a catchweight, and by all accounts, welterweight was Oscar's idea. But what about Pacquiao fighting in the junior welterweight division? It's considered one of the best divisions in boxing right now"

"I'm a little split on the junior welterweight division, to be honest. It seems to be a very deep and talented division, but it's also a division filled with unproven boxers. I think whoever emerges from the division will be a proven world class fighter, but I wonder if there might be a bit of an illusion going on in the division. Maidana has given absolute hell to everybody in the division, and a very old Erik Morales made a strong case for having beaten him. There's a lot of shaking out to do in that division to know just how 'real' it is. It's absolutely not the same as the welterweight division was four or five years ago. The welterweight division was a division of prime and near prime veterans and former champions coming up in weight or going down in weight. There's an intriguing stylistic mix at junior welterweight, but I would say nobody other than Bradley is a real veteran. And that's exactly the point I'm making here. I'm not sure it's cut and dry that Pacquiao has been avoiding the best fighters. I can nitpick and say I wish he could have fought Paul Williams, or have conceded to the testing demands the very first time around and fought Mayweather, or not insisted on a silly catchweight for Cotto, but all said, I believe he has fought the most credible fighters in his weight range. Even now, in the shape he's in, Mosley vs. Bradley at welterweight would not be an easy fight to call. I would love to see Mosley and Berto go at it, and that wouldn't be an easy fight to call, either. Mosley isn't nearly what he was, but what he is is at least as good as any welterweight not named Mayweather or Pacquiao. If we remember that, we can put both Mayweather's and Pacquiao's accomplishments against Mosley in perspective. They deserve credit for those wins"

Hmm. Not sure I agree with everything he said, but he made some really good observations. And he's right about Mosley - I still wouldn't bet against him against Berto, Bradley at 147, or even Ortiz for that matter. I see them all as near 50/50 affairs. Those are fights I'd like to see, to see what the young guys have, or to see what Mosley has left.

 

Disagree. When the welterweight was at its very peak in 2006-2007, the three best fighers were Cotto, Margarito, and Williams, with the second tier being Clottey and Mosley, coming off a close loss to Cotto. Of those five fighters, Mayweather fought only ONE of them, and that wasn't until last year, and that was only because he was virtually forced into it by circumstance. Mayweather took no part in cleaning up the welterweight division. He remained uninterested until last year, when he fought a lightweight, and fought Mosley, who didn't clean up the division himself, since he lost to Cotto.

 

Shoot. You know, I checked your facts and you're absolutely right. I completely forgot that DLH was the #1 rated welterweight and Hatton was the #2 rated welterweight at the time Mayeather fought them. So when you said, "Mayweather fought the best guys at their best", clearly you were correct given DLH and Hatton's respective top welterweight rankings, and the low rankings of Cotto, Margarito, and Williams.

Oh wait...