Did Pacquiao duck anybody?

He ducked in the same sense as Mayweather. In other words, he didn't fight every conceivable fight that would've been vaguely interesting or warranted by some sanctioning body at some point. And, there you go. SRR did that same awful thing that has no way to disprove it too. And no matter what you say, you cannot disprove it.

 

Pac's fault was leaving it to Bob Arum too often.
Fighting the likes of clottey, margarito, bradley 3 times, horn, rios etc.

"Talk to my promoter" but if Bob Arum had put him in with Sergio Martinez he would have fought him.
The guy had heart. He was going to fight Spence at 42. Fought Morales 3 times, Barrera twice, Marquez 4 times despite being a bad style match up, cotto, margarito with 20 pounds on him on fight night, Thurman at 40. A lightweight punching above his weight for over a decade. Thats why I dont question his heart.
Nor do I agree with Floyd fans who will come in to claim he ducked Floyd in 2010 when Floyd avoided him like the plague and kept putting up obstacles to not fight him at that time. He was on that Tyson Fury ****.

 

Pac didnt care about risking a loss though. Why would he not fight anyone?
It was top rank that kept it in house. Its manny's fault for letting that happen though.

Floyd was retiring, going on vacations and putting up rosdblocks to noy fight guys people wanted him to fight at that moment. All to keep the undefeated gravy train going since no casual watching him fight without hoping he would get defeated. And him being his own man since dlh its easier to hold him accountable while it also being more obvious.

 

The word "duck" speaks to intent. I doubt a man with the fighting, warrior spirit of Manny Pacquiao ducked anyone. Very few fighters are truly in charge of their careers, even the top ones. Money Mayweather would be an exception. Pacquiao's advisors and handlers may have intentionally stayed away from a fighter or two but if so, it didn't happen much.

Manny fought good fighter after good fighter with some great ones sprinkled in the mix. Any fighter who fights at the top level for a long time will have the same kind of opponent pattern. That would include, Ali, Robinson, Duran and just about anyone you could name.

 

Thats why I dont think he ducked. Wasnt in his heart not to fight anyone. Same with guys like Duran, Holy, Ali, Hagler or Morales. They fought everyone and loved to fight.

 

I would have loved to see Pac fight Raheem after he beat Morales.(Raheem)

 

Yeah that would of been good to see but it's understandable that Pac would want to avenge his loss to Morales despite Morales losing on the double header with Pac. Also according to Marquez at the time who was trying to get a rematch with Pac, he said a fight next between him and Pac was not going to happen because Pac had already signed to rematch Morales so whatever the outcome of Pac/Velaquez and Morales/Raheem it was going to be Pac/Morales II next.

 

I think we need to treat them both like adults. Pacquiao always did what he wanted to do, often went against Roach's wishes, for instance, got what he wanted, no matter who was around him saying what. If he chose to defer to Arum at any time, that is on him, and likely because he was disinterested in anything Bob was or wasn't doing, rather than that someone working for him was going against his wishes for who to fight. No differently than Mayweather, completely regardless of promoters they're in charge of signing with and staying with. Why should it be easier to hold Mayweather accountable? Why not hold Pacquiao accountable for not leaving the promoter if the promoter was the problem? You think Bob Arum was dictating to Pacquiao that he wasn't allowed to fight someone he really wanted to fight or that he just told Pac it couldn't be done and Pac wasn't savvy enough to understand that it was BS? This is the classic instinct to infantilize this multilingual college graduate, congressman, global superstar, and it should really stop, because it just doesn't track. Let's not forget, most of this stuff about Mayweather didn't really get started until he was retired a legend, came back, and was ironically negotiating to try and fight the only guy challenging his spot as the greatest fighter of his generation. A narrative was pushed before that, but that's when it really got off the ground. And sometimes with fighters clarifying to the public later that the narrative ain't right, from their end, like Paul Williams and Kostya Tszyu. But it doesn't matter, because people want to believe that narrative, because Floyd is special and can't be judged like other fighters, I guess.

"Pac didn't care about risking a loss though. Why would he not fight anyone?" If this were any kind of issue with Floyd, why did he immediately rematch JLC and Maidana when he already got away with the victory in the first place? I mean, what is the criticism here that is special to Floyd that proves some kind of ducking that is more substantial proof than what is normal for a whole legendary career? What are the roadblocks he threw up? Not wanting his opponent to be on PED's? I hope it's not that, because that's not a roadblock. The roadblock would be walking over it, wouldn't it? Sorry, I just don't see anything for either that isn't fairly expected, given the scope of the sport's history. The amount of character assassination Floyd gets for not fighting a guy who walked away from him, that he did end up fighting anyway, isn't even equal to what I've seen other legends get for drawing a colour line and going on 3-year sabbaticals while still allowed to hold their title. It's pretty comical, honestly. And the lack of that detraction that Pacquiao gets, when he's called out all over the place by people he either didn't fight or put off fighting, just like Floyd is pretty comical also, but by contrast to Floyd, not that I think such detraction would be fair, as per my initial comment.

 

There was a time when most fans and media thought he really ought not to miss at least one if not more of Humberto Soto, Joan Guzman, and Edwin Valero. He missed all three. Whether or not any of those was a "duck", eh...sort of depends on how much slack you're willing to cut someone for not chomping at the bit for higher risk, lower reward types as opposed to moving up through several divisions facing much larger but not always stellar opponents (ie p4p, Margarito was half the fighter Zorrita was, but...freaking huge)

 

The guy at 40 years old went after Keith Thurman. Then at 42, after a 2 year layoff, he went after Crawford and settled for Spence, but ended up fighting Ugas. And he fought Marquez 4X who is a stylistic nightmare for him.

I tried to type the word **** with Pac in the same sentence and it is comes out ****. So no, Pac never ****ed no one. **** and Pac cannot exist in the same universe.

 

Wasn't Marquez the ultimate high risk low reward fighter? Nobody knew who Marquez was in 2004. He was operating at an extremely high level. And he was stylistic kryptonite for Pacquiao's in ring style. Chalk it up to poor promotion and Pacquiao being a ****-strong 25-year-old who didn't know any better other than ring, box, fight.

 

Pac went through a Murderer's Row in Marquez, Morales, and Barrera. That he had any fear of Soto, Guzman, and Valero is laughable. The Valero fight was coming. Bob was dying to make it and the hype had started. Then Edwin went full ree ree and did crazy things.