Gomez vs Pacquiao @122

Pac was amazing, and a KO is never out of the question in a fight with him. But I feel he was still an improving fighter back when he fought at sbw. For all his talent, he had many flaws and Gomez would exploit them. Later on Pac would be to strong, but at 122 it's Gomez for me.

 

I agree with this assessment partly. IMO there is a big difference between the Pacquiao in the first couple fights at 122 and then his last fight with Lucero. Also his timing, movement and defense seemed to improve as well.

Pacquiao's time as a SBW was really the rise of his career. That's where the groundwork was laid with Roach. And that's where the preparation for the prime Mexican legends was done.

He looked very green technically and even somewhat green physically during his beginning at 122. He seemed to get stronger and faster as the years went on.

But by his last fight at 122 against Lucero (right before Barrera I) he looked basically prime. Pretty much looked right in his prime by the time of the Lucero fight.

 

Good post. I agree with most of what you say. He was really coming in to his own by the Lucero fight. But I still believe he became even better later on as he gained weight. I think he was 24 or 25 for the Lucero fight and was just entering his prime years. In the following years he became stronger and more clever. The first Morales fight probably thought him alot.

I won't say he was green when he faced Lucero, I just don't think he was quite good enough yet to beat Gomez.

 

I disagree. Pacquiao was still a somewhat crude and still improving fighter when he got to featherweight... Didn't really hit full stride until he got to junior-lightweight.

 

You don't think the lack of a right hand thing is overblown? At 112 and his early days at 122 he was raw. But already by the time of the first Barrera fight he had a great straight right. The right hook was already a big weapon by the time he fought 3K battery at 126. I realize that 3K battery was a contender and not that great of a competition.

The lack of a right hand is mostly a thing that developed because he couldn't hurt Marquez or Morales with his rand hand. He always threw right hands once Roach got him, it's just that he only had big time power in 1 hand.

As far as other parts of his game like head movement, controlling distance, etc. They were all developed by the Lucero fight. And things like cutting off the ring he never learned.

This is just my opinion: but I think that Pacquiao being raw at featherweight and his later days at 122 is a myth. He was never a master technical fighter and never became one anyways.

 

I agree with you that his limitations were overblown and that he never became a great technical fighter in any caes, but I think that his technique and his/Roach's strategy improved significantly after the first Marquez fight. He went from being an athlete to someone who did a better job of creating angles and using his movement to put himself in position to get off a greater array of punches with leverage. His defense improved a bit too (I haven't seen most of these fights since they happened though, so please take my posts on this with even more grains of salt than usual).

 

Fair post. I agree with a lot of what you say. My thing is I think the small improvements he made technically after the Lucero fight were nullified by the fact that he was most physically dominant at 126 pounds due a combination of him peaking athletically and it being his most comfortable weight class. He was a decent sized featherweight.