FOLLOWING 40-year-old Manny Pacquiao’s age-defying, dominant performance against the much younger undefeated Keith Thurman, it is time to seriously assess the shoo-in Hall of Famer’s place in the pantheon of all-time greats.
For starters, there’s only one name that rivals Pacquiao as the greatest fighter of this century: Floyd Mayweather.
Mayweather’s claim to greatness is his retiring undefeated with 50 wins. And yet if staying undefeated is the sole basis for becoming the Greatest of All Time (Goat), how come Rocky Marciano with a 49-0 win-loss record but a much higher knockout rate of 43 KOs compared to Mayweather’s measly 27 is nowhere near Goat status?
Even at this stage, an aging yet active Pacquiao arguably has a bigger, far more significant impact in the world of boxing than Floyd.
While Mayweather bores spectators to death, the selfless Pacquiao always gives fans entertaining, unforgettable fights.
While the global boxing community watches in awe as Pacquiao defies conventional boxing wisdom, an entire country comes to a halt whenever he steps inside the ring.
You cannot say the same of Mayweather or of any boxer in the last 30 years. The last one with such a global impact was Mike Tyson, until his fall from grace from the sport before the turn of the century.
A good benchmark for Pacquiao’s place in the pantheon of greats would be Roberto Duran, who ranked fifth in Ring Magazine’s “80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years” published in 2002, a year after he retired.
Duran wasn’t undefeated but did bid farewell to the sport with an astounding 103-16 win-loss record. He fought wars with other greats and lost, and yet he is held in the highest regard by the “bible of boxing.”
Panama’s Hands of Stone won five titles in four weight divisions, while the Philippines’ Pambansang Kamao won 12 titles in eight divisions, the only boxer in history to do so.
Like Duran, Pacquiao overcame poverty as a boxer. But unlike Duran, Pacquiao went on to achieve far greater things in and outside the ring, and the Filipino fighting senator isn’t done yet.
Explain why Pacquiao isn’t greater than Duran. Or Muhammad Ali even. But let’s leave that for another day.