Pacquiao’s greatest win?

It's between Barrera, Marquez and Cotto.

 

Barrera.

 

Cotto for mine. Completely dominated a damn good fighter with a size advantage over him in an epic fight.

Manny was more dominant vs Hatton and Oscar but they weren’t Cotto calibre at that point.

 

Catchweight for Cotto fight takes some shine away from that victory for me. Marquez is the best fighter He beat - I agree with poster above - @McGrain - but those were not decisive victories - at the very least fights II and III could've gone the other way.

I'll probably give the edge to Barrera from the first fight.
The win over Bradley in a rematch is underrated one also imo.

 

I'd say his best victory is over Marco Antonio Barrera who was top 5 P4P at the time, he completed thrashed Barerra in every single round and that was the fight that really announced Pacquiao on the big stage.

Morales had already lost the trilogy to Barrera, and got dominated by Zahir Raheem when Pacquiao finally beat him. So again i can't rate that as Pacquiao's best win.

Pacquiao never really beat Marquez convincingly in any fight, infact i had him losing all 4 fights. So i can't rate it as Pacquiao's best win because of the controversy surrounding the scoring in all the fights.

Miguel Cotto is a good shout definitely top 3 win but not quite number 1 for me because of the catchweight.

Ricky Hatton is also a good shout because Pacquiao was the first man to beat him at 140, remember his fight with Mayweather was at 147 which wasn't Hatton's best weight as the Collazo fight showed. But the way Pacquiao KO'ed Hatton in a similar manner to how Hearns destroyed Duran, it has to well up there regarding his best wins.

 

That's the thing though arguably the best fighter he defeated was Marquez like you pointed out, but the controversy regarding the scoring of the fights takes away some shine from those victories. I personally had Marquez winning all 4 fights so for me i can't rate Marquez as number 1.

As for Morales as i pointed out in my other post Morales had lost the trilogy to Barrera, and recently lost 12-0 to Zahir Raheem in a horrible performance when Pacquiao finally beat him. Morales was considered past his best when Pacquiao finally got to him so again not number 1 for me.

For me its between Cotto, Barrera, or Hatton for the manner of the victory. But i went with Barrera because he was top 5 P4P at the time. And Pacquiao dismantled a great fighter who was still considered at his peak or close to it.

 

The 3 Pac-JMM fights were close but not highway robberies by any means. Pac beating JMM narrowly deserves some credit no matter how you scored it. JMM was always going to be Pac's kryptonite stylistically. Officially he is 2-1-1 against him. It's like not giving Ali any credit for beating Ken Norton.

 

Barrera, JMM, and Cotto are Pac's best wins without a doubt.

 

But no one rates Norton as Ali's best win do they ? when judging a fighter's best performance. I don't think winning a highly controversial decision, is better than total domination regardless of whether or not you rate Marquez over Barrera. You have to look at the context of the victories and not just the stats.

I had Marquez winning all 4 fights vs Pacquiao, so it makes no sense from my point of view to rate that as Pacquiao's best win.

 

Perhaps not. But people have rated Michael Spinks narrow wins over Larry Holmes highly, and even then people have said that Holmes might have at least won one of those fights, but officially Spinks is 2-0 against Holmes.

I agree that dominating a fight is always better but given how highly rated a fighter JMM is and the fact that Pac was able to edge him in at least 2 fights is something that should still be credited for. I never understood why there was so much controversy in their series considering how close their fights were prior to the fourth fight.

 

Well i think most people have Spinks beating Holmes in their 1st meeting, and consider the 2nd fight controversial. But point taken i understand what your getting at.

I do give Pacquiao credit for edging Marquez, even though i don't agree with the official verdicts of all the fights. But as i said i do think you have to look at the context and the manner of the victories, since we're rating Pacquiao's best ever win.

And for me dominating a great fighter in Barrera, who was top 5 P4P fighter and who was considered at his peak or close to it ? is a more impressive victory than the Marquez fights, if you take into account how Pacquiao won both fights.

But again i understand it's all subjective but that's personally how i see it right or wrong.

 

Sugar Ray Leonard's victory over Marvin Hagler is also another example of a similar circumstance. At the time it was seen as controversial with some people thinking that Hagler should have gotten the nod, despite that it's still seen as SRL's best wins as well. Canelo was able to have an official win over GGG in their second fight despite people's outcry of the results but is still seen as a great win.

Best win doesn't have to be a complete dominant performance over a highly rated fighter, it just means that's how good and competitive the other fighter is.

But yes I do agree that beating Barrera who was just coming off a win over Morales, Tapia, and Hamed, is a more impressive victory over JMM.

 

For me it's Barrera. I remember watching the first fight he had with him, that was the first time I'd seen him fight actually.
Very impressed how he handled Marco.
There was no stopping him there really.