Could Donaire ultimately go down in the history books as the greatest p4p fighter of this generation, which also includes Mayweather and Pacquaio? What would he need to achieve to do so? Could he in fact already be labelled the most skilled fighter of this generation?
Ability wise he's 1 of the best of all times in his own right, his movement and angles are excellent, good jab and use of range, he has Ray Robinson-esque punches, that's how good a puncher I think he is. He's obviously a better fighter than Pacquaio from 112-118. Pacquaio gets allot of props for fighting for titles in 8 divisions, but until recently at 147 he's never been the smaller man in those divisions. Donaire doesn't have the natural muscularity of Pacquaio to carry 140-147lbs of muscle, he's nearly 29, so he's never going up all those divisions. For me division hopping is a bit overrated, people talk about Langford starting at 140lbs and going upto HW and him being a great P4P fighter. Well at HW he didn't beat the very best and he was 180lbs, the same weight as Marciano and Marciano beat better fighters weighing 180lbs so how is Langford automatically better P4p? Ahhhhh because he had a close fight with Gans as a teenager when he weighed 140lbs. People just give brownie points based on how much muscle someone's gained from their teenage years to their mid 20s. Unfortunately for Donaire he won't get the same chances to prove himself against great fighters so most won't acknowledge how good he is. He's already beat the best fighters in his divisions and who else is there for him to prove his greatness against? 118-122 just doesn't have the massive names. He also could well be the victim of politics and Arum screwing him over. Even if he gets all the fights though people may say his competition isn't as good. Rigondeaux looks like a great fighter the division above but if Donaire beats him people will say he was inexperienced as a pro. IF he was with Arum and he scaled all the way to 126, where he might be a small man, would people rate a win over Gamboa? That would be an amazing win for me, I rate Gamboa highly myself
I think he doesn't have the competition to catch either man, but he compares very favorably to Pac. He is a huge hitter at his weight, and his power is paralyzing. His skills are also very good. He will no doubt go down as one of the best in his division ever, but I don't know how much longevity he has.
He's already been a 2-division titlist across three divisions, taken Darchinyan's 0, likely to take Narvaez's, been a unified champ, destroyed Syd and Montiel with truly impressive ease. His resume is good, getting very good and within a few years, it might be great. He's one of those rarities, he's smart and he's got the athleticism to take that ring IQ places. His toughest opponent might be management but I've got hopes for him. Although I'm not too sure about some of the argument with PP, as usual, , but I agree that the weight jumping is getting overrated, and maybe Donaire does get into the range of those two. It reminds me of the Chavez/Pac thread I did, asking if they were on the same "tier" for everybody. Chavez just being Chavez in three championship weight classes is more than enough for most to have him with Pac or above, all those titles not outshining him. Maybe the same goes for with Donaire, if he puts in more of these stellar performances over good opponents. I wish him the best of luck, even though he's got that SRL please-everyone-like-me vibe that goes against my Haglerian nature. :twisted:
I haven't watched that much of Donaire yet, but he seems to me to be have a good lot of both Pac's dynamicism and Floyd's precision. Seems to be quite a unique fighter.
Yeah, that's the good thing about Floyd. He leaves absolutely no doubt about what a massive ***** he is. As long as they produce the fights and performances I couldn't really give a ****, though.
True. But, in the end, maybe it's all good. We have the good guy/bad guy dynamic or the nice guy/hard-ass guy dynamic. They're old stand-by hype classics. And maybe even the lowest hype is helpful in some way. No bad publicity and all of that. :nod Given us some top notch ones, too. :good
hes already shite loads ahead of pac in ability. i could see him moving up a few weight classes. the guy is a star
Well, he's about to face his third established class opponent in a row, so, it's senseless to be on him for that anymore, I'd think.