1. Barrera I 2. Marquez II 3. Cotto 4. Hatton 5. Morales II 6. Sasakul 7. Margarito 8. Mosley 9. Bradley II 10. Ledwaba Mosley and Morales are ATG's but Pacquiao caught them on the slide. I don't even list De La Hoya who was drained and finished. Hatton seems a little high, but Pacquiao stopped him at 140 which was Hatton's best weight.
I think Thurman maybe deserves a shout considering Pacquiao's age it's probably one of the best wins ever for a 40+ year old fighter, maybe also Pacquiao destroying Morales in their 3rd fight aswell ? But overall your list is pretty solid.
I can never forget the sight of old and tiny Robert Guerrero putting a beating on Thurman in the later rounds.
Very good list. I think Thurman deserves to be here. I'd put him at #8 and exclude Mosley. But how deep Manny's resume is! If some very good/solid opponents like David Diaz or Oscar Larios aren't mentioned here at all
1. Marco Antonio Barrera 1 2. Miguel Cotto 3. Juan Manuel Marquez 2 4. Keith Thurman(considering the circumstances) 5. Erik Morales 2(would be higher but Morales had just lost to Raheem) 6. Tim Bradley 2(Bradley had just beat Marquez's ass) 7. Ricky Hatton 8. Chatchai Sasakul 9. Joshua Clottey 10. Antonio Margarito 11. Lehlo Ledwaba 12. Bradley 3 13. Oscar Larios 14. Barrera 2 15. Marquez 3 16. Morales 3 17. David Diaz 18. Oscar De La Hoya 19. Shane Mosley 20. Chris Algeri 21. Jessie Vargas 22. Brandon Rios 23. Adrien Broner 24. Lucas Matthyse 25. Drunken Prostitutes'
Feel like the top 3 are set in stone. After those 3 wins there is a big drop-off. All 3 of those wins are some of the best wins in modern boxing history.
I think Morales was very, very good, close to his prime (but not exactly in it) when Manny beat him in the rematch. Kinda like Hagler vs Leonard - not the peak version, but still very good. Definitely much closer to his best version than Holyfield was against Lewis or Holmes was against Spinks
I don't think Morales was close to his prime honestly, he looked kind of faded vs Barrera in their 3rd fight in which i think he was well beaten 116-112 despite his late rally. And just prior to the 2nd fight with Morales he'd just got embarrassed by Zahir Raheem losing 12-0.
Ledwaba is kind of underrated. Not a great fighter, but an underrated solid fighter. He would pose a challenge to anybody at 122 right now other than Inoue. Ledwaba was blazing fast and had some decent boxing skills.
I think Raheem was just a bad stylistic matchup for him. His style would make anyone look bad. Barrera fight was clear win for Marco Antonio, but I still had it highly competitive (115-113 for Barrera). And he beat Manny just in-between. So that was still a very good version of Morales
Morales' legs were gone by the time he fought Pacquiao, but Pacquiao isn't a boxer. You don't need to find Pacquiao. He is coming to you. The way to beat Pacquiao is to stand your ground, not run away and have a big and accurate right hand. If you try and run against Pacquiao you are finished.
Morales had lost 5 of his last 6 before his initial retirement, the only win coming against Pac. Prior to that Morales had arguably never lost. He was clearly in decline and far removed from his prime around that time.