Did Manny Pacquaio get overrated in his career?

Too many ‘catchweight’ fights for me. There were 18 divisions and he was too reluctant to pick one and fight at division limit instead trying to drain opponents. It cheapened the fights and sport.

 

Happens when you don't cherry pick your career and retire and un-retire five times.

 

Stopped reading @ "Bradley beat him fair and square".

 

It was literally Manny who pulled out of the fight because of his "fear of needles" and not wanting to do an olympic style drug testing that he agreed to in 2015.

 

He only did it 3 times, lol.

 

After making his 147 debut Manny left the weight class twice to fight Hatton and Margarito. He could have went up for a cup of coffee at 160 and he didn't. So I don't think "theres 19 weight classes and he was too reluctant to pick one" is fair. While Manny won 8 division titles he won 135, 140 and 154 belts in his only fights at those weight class. Most of his career was in 4 weight classes 112,122,130 and 147 and almost his whole "prime" was at 147 or 130 and 147. Other fighters who won in less divisions split their career much worse.


I think weight differences are overrated but Mannys P4P feats under that structure still exceed anyone elses. He went from 112 to 154 and as mentioned before could have went up to 160. Its not like he barely won at 154 and was clearly at his limit. Bob Moha whose Mannys height won a title at 175 but his record against ATGs is terrible and he had no power. Roberto Duran never defended a title above 135. Manny had a 6 fight run where he looked like the messiah. At that point he was probably overrated. Since then things have cooled down and I think people have been measured in their praise for him.


Mannys competition at 147+ did lean smaller but De La Hoya, Cotto, Margarito, Mosley and Thurman are still 5 amazing wins that really insulates him from that. Manny beat 14 fighters who won world titles above LW and only 3 won above WW. But at the time thats where the talent was. Look at the P4P lists. The record suggests that Manny had a harder time with guys closer to his size.

Finally theres nothing wrong with fighting closer to the lower limit even if its not seldon done. Its 140-147 not 145-147. The weight class spreads are close enough.

 

No. What he did will never be done again. A guy coming up from such low weight classes to compete and win against the best welters. For a while, every single Pac fight people said he was going to get killed and he shocked people every time. The thought of Pac competing against some fighters was met with "lol, Pact***, Pac gets ktfo".

 

Somewhat. He is obviously an ATG and accomplished unprecedented tasks.

1) He was overrated by his most rabid fan base. "he will KO Floyd" that type of BS. I called those fans out on their BS
2) His 8 titles in 8 weights is really more like 7 as the 154 title was pretty illegit
3) He did face the weak link title holder at 135

However is run at 126-130 is what makes him great, even performing at 147 and fighting long past his prime and defeating Keith Thurman in 2019 is undeniably the stuff of legends.

None of my 3 points are designed to denigrate his legacy

 

Maybe only by his countrymen. Other than that he’s fairly rated or even underrated at times

 

he lost twice and no more than that

 

What Pacquiao did above 130 was a little bit curated. The 135 and 154 belts were basically fake and he did little in either of those weights. The wins over Hatton, Bradley, and Cotto were very good but he didn’t get in there with Spence, Guerrero, Porter, peak Thurman (he made up for that one), Brook, etc. I do remember being completely bored when he signed to fight Clottey.

 

Pac is a generational talent and a once in a lifetime kind of fighter. The number of HOFers he's beaten, his legendary fights, and titles won in different weight classes are signs of a great fighter. Overrated by his rabid fans? Sure, but by no means was he a short of being a top ATG. He was considered the P4P best fighter for good reasons and the stuff he did is something that can't be repeated.

 

Almost every ATG fighters had losses and knockout losses throughout their careers. Ali, Robinson, Duran, Louis, Charles, Moore, Leonard, Tyson, Holyfield, Arguello, etc. Some of them having double digit losses. That didn't make them any less of being great fighters. Pac isn't any more different. Losses and getting knocked out happens to the best fighters and should not be a knock on their greatness.

 

Manny actually did have a lot of cherry picks and retire and un retire several times. Fighting a 38 year old Floyd was a cherry pick.