In what division does Pacquiao rank the highest?

This is a question I struggle with sometimes, Pacquaio went through a few evolutions in his career and placing him can be difficult.

You have to look at both him as a fighter and other names in the divisions history.

Flyweight : imo he was basically Wilder here. Raw as hell, but monstrous power. Stopped twice but both times when tight at the weight.

Super Bantamweight: an all out offensive machine who blew away all of his opposition, but he never faced a great fighter here

Featherweight: dominated a prime Barrera and deserved to edge a prime Marquez. Very short stay in the division, and his weakness to being timed is prevalent.

Super Featherweight: 8 fights here, beating everyone he faced but dropping a decision to Morales. He looks awesome at this weight but has begun to calm down a bit with his all out aggressive approach.

Lightweight : one fight only. Scintillating display against a sub par opponent.

Lightwelterweight : one fight only scintillating display against a world class opponent.

Welterweight : spent the most amount of time in this division, over a decade, close fights with Marquez and Horn. Losses to Marquez and Mayweather. A ream of quality opponents but every time he looks too small for the division. Arguably his best ever performance here against Cotto.

So what do we make of him. This isn't what division was he necessarily the best at, but what division do you think he ranks the highest in from an ATG point of view?

 

130 and it isn't that close.

For all his time at 147, Bradley and Cotto were really the only two standout scalps to me.

 

I don't know, he performed worse against Marquez and Barrera at 130 and he had that loss to Morales (although he did avenge it).

But he does have an awesome resume there, even though he didn't look as dominant imo.

At SBW he looked too much for anyone to handle but didn't have the resume to back it up.

Plus loads argue his zenith was 135 or 140.

So I see a few arguments in different directions tbh.

FWIW I'd say 130 as well.

 

130 is the weight he naturally topped out at,,,the rest of his career he was on the steroid train.

 

Probably 140lbs despite it being 1 fight. It's his optimal division.

No he didn't

 

Both the FW and SFW fights I had 6 rounds a piece with the knockdowns winning for him both times.

 

I've not really considered Pacquiao in terms of one specific weight class. I've looked at his career, more as a peak timeframe, the plateau of which I would say was 2005 to 2009, inclusive.

With Pacquiao it seemed that he was really coming to the fore at 126, then set on fire during his time at 130, which continued, as he move through the divisions, up to and including his shifts between 140-147 and how he ended 2009 with the win over Cotto.

But, he's actually spent a dozen years in the Ring Rated Top-10 Welterweights and so, if forced to picked a division, in which he ranks the highest, it would probably have to be 147.

 

Yea, you must be scoring ineffective aggression. The rematch was a flatout robbery. Marquez lands far cleaner than Pacquaio for the majority of round in both fights. You have to remember the most important thing is who is landing the cleanest punches

The rubber match was outright disgusting.

 

Pacquaio aggression was actually pretty effective in the first two fights. He knocked Marquez down 4 times.

 

Super feather for me

 

Yes but that's 2 rounds out of 24

 

What's your scorecard for them both.

 

When we judge a boxer, we should look at his whole career.
Fighters that suffers from being judged only in one division:
Sam Langford, Fitzsimmon, Dela Hoya, RJJ, Ross, JCC, McGovern, Conn, Nelson. None of these will make Top 10 of any division.

The way to judge boxers is similar to how Boxrec ranks their boxers. Pick the best weight of that boxer and rank him according to his entire career. Although Boxrec ranks Langford as HW as most of his fights happened there. I would rather rank him as LHW.

 

Actually quite a lot of those listed are top ten fighters.

Langford at LHW
Hoya at LWW and LMW
RJJ at LHW, SMW and MW
Ross at WW, LWW and LW
JCC at LWW, LW, and SFW
McGovern at FW and BW
Conn at LHW
Nelson at FW and SFW

 

Forget the Junior Division.
If you look closely at Langford resume, who did he beat at LHW? It is only Jeff Clarke.
Ross is a Top 25 ATG but barely makes Top 10 WW or LW in terms of resume and longevity.

Conn's resume at LHW is too shallow and short
Who did JCC only stayed at LW for one year