"The Demise of Pacquiao" Just or Unjust?

It was obvious the pacman would have a decline in performance.

Too many people outside of boxing want a piece of him and couple that with his interest in politics mean he has far too much outside influence to be anywhere near as good as he once was.

 

I think he's been on the slide for the last 18 months. He's by no means shot but just isn't quite the same animal he was in 2010/11.

You're right Craney, he was looking good against Marquez and was starting to put a bit of a beating on JMM before he got sparked.

If I were him I'd retire, he's made a lot of money and has been in a lot of tough fights.

 

When you look at it and think a guy like Pacquiao peaked really to extremely high levels from his 51st fight and this is after a already tough career i'm not shocked it's begun to tail off.

Ariza's work to me looks like short term high performance stuff. I think also people began to walk away from Manny and fight him as a Welterweight rather then fight him like 'this guys smaller then me so i'm going to walk him down'. The Margarito fight was brutal and again took miles of the clock. The political stuff as well took away from his performances IMO.

I think it's a bit of everything but no doubts he's started to decline even looking good last time out he still wasn't IMO unbelievable.

 

I've thought he's been on the decline for some time now. His last great performance was against Cotto.

 

Even before Marquez he hadn't looked good in quite a few fights, absolutely no doubt about it - he was on the slide.

Interested to see how he is after that Marquez loss, KO's like that tend to take most of what a fighter has left out of them, especially in the case of someone like Pacquiao who was probably approaching the end anyway.

 

He's looked a little slower and more flatfooted ever since the Cotto fight, which is actually one of his best ever performances. I don't think he's finished. You don't go from being the best fighter in the world to finished that quickly, but he has peaked I think. I feel he won the Bradley fight comfortably and was looking good against Marquez. For me, the two concerns I have are 1: His confidence being damaged due to the Marquez KO and 2: His political career being a distraction, as well as other activities that don't allow him to focus fully in the gym. If these two things are not a problem, then he should still have a few fights left in him at the highest level. I had lost interest in the Mayweather fight long ago, but now I like that fight again.

 

I think he was 2 rounds from stopping Marquez.

 

I must have been watching a different Pac/Marquez 4 to everyone else.

Pac was poor, static, sluggish, flat footed. Look at the lead up to the KO, the way he just shuffles in sort of waving his right hand about. That ain't the Pacquiao of 2 years ago. Even the first knockdown - when was the last time he got caught so easily and cleanly when basically standing still right in range.

Is he finished? No.

On the slide - yes. But let's be right about it, he's still clearly P4P top 10 and coming off a peak that's higher than most world class fighters ever see.

 

Is it surprising considering all his out the ring activities?

 

It is a fallacy to think Pacman was winning the contest against Marquez comfortably. He was not. We should not forget that Marquez floored him heavily and shook him right to his boots earlier with a right hand over the top. It was a very competitive fight until the ending with Pacman scoring a knockdown as well. The knockout punch looks like a career ending defeat to me. I am one of those who gave the fight to Bradley against him. The truth is Pacmam has and is a declining force.

 

He should have fought JMM again before he shot his bolt against Clottey, Marga and Mosley. Terrible run of fights with all three virtually coming off losses.

 

Gotta feel for Manny. He used to have a lovely collection of hats