Pacquiao Mayweather Fight of a Decade

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Mayweather's public persona ("Money Mayweather") is a self-creation. Give him credit for good marketing on that. And he has the respect of his peers. Zab Judah once remarked, "Floyd comes into every fight physically and mentally at 100 percent."

Some observers of the boxing scene complain that Floyd runs more than he fights. But Bernard Hopkins rebuts that notion, saying, "Floyd don't run from nobody. I've seen Floyd counterpunch; I've seen Floyd move; I've seen Floyd use his speed, use his quickness. But I've never seen Floyd run."


And Mayweather himself notes, "Boxing is a beautiful sport. Boxing is art. The last time I looked, the sport was called 'boxing,' not '"toe-to-toe.'"

Still, there's a chink in Floyd's armor. There's a school of thought that, for much of the decade, he ducked the tough fights, managing to avoid Shane Mosley, Paul Williams, Antonio Margarito, and Miguel Cotto.

That brings us to Manny Pacquiao.

On January 1, 2000, Manny Pacquiao was 21 years old and virtually unknown outside of his native Philippines. During the course of the past decade, he has fought 26 times and become the most famous fighter in the world. His opponents in that 10-year span included Erik Morales (three times), Marco Antonio Barrera (twice), Juan Manuel Marquez (twice), Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. In 10 fights against these six Hall-of-Fame-caliber opponents, Pacquiao amassed 8 wins against 1 loss and a draw.

Moreover, unlike Hopkins and Mayweather (both of whom fought many of their biggest fights against smaller men), Pacquiao has consistently challenged naturally bigger fighters. He has hurdled every major obstacle in his weight class and then some.

Unlike Mayweather and Calzaghe, Pacquiao has a less-than-perfect record for the decade. But when a fighter fights the best again and again, sometimes he loses. When Sugar Ray Robinson was young and great, he lost to Jake LaMotta. Muhammad Ali lost to Joe Frazier and Ken Norton before he got old.

History judges elite fighters in large measure by their record against other elite fighters and how they perform in their most difficult challenges.

Mayweather has talked the talk. Pacquiao has walked the walk. And Manny has out-of-the-ring intangibles as well. In that regard, he's similar to Muhammad Ali: a great fighter, a good person and an important symbol for his people.

"I'm just doing my job to be a good fighter," Pacquiao said after beating Miguel Cotto earlier this year.

He's doing more than that. Manny Pacquiao deserves recognition as "Fighter of the Decade."

Source: HBO.com

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