Manny Pacquiao: An All Time Great Challenge
By Hermilando “Ingming” Duque Aberia
When Manny Pacquiao says he fights to make the fans happy, people in general know what he is talking about. They understand where he is coming from. When he was too young to make a decent living for himself and his family, life was so hard that controlling body weight was forced not by boxing rules but by lack of food to eat. “I understand,” he once said, “how it feels when people go hungry.”
He knows that fans spend their hard-earned money to see him perform. He was once so poor that he could not imagine people wasting a penny on a worthless night of boxing. Thus he swears it’s his job, as a professional fighter, to ensure that fans get their money’s worth every time they see atop the ring.
And so when people watch Pacquiao fight, they see an incredible small-sized package of ferocity and aggression let loose inside that square ring. Equally incredible is the fact that he has been dishing out his brand of boxing for 16 years, from the time he turned professional at age 16 to the present (he turned 31 on December 17, 2009).
Other all-times greats—such as Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, Pernell Whitaker, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Julio Cesar Chavez SR., Floyd Mayweather JR., etc.—may have entertained the fans the way Pacquiao does, but quite often towards the twilight of their careers people had found it easy to forget how good they were at their prime. Not Pacquiao.
He continues to surprise the fans as he progresses in age. He has already achieved what no other fighter in boxing history has done—winning world titles in 7 different weight divisions—and yet it seems he remains a work in progress. The weight divisions where he ruled as king started at 112 pounds (flyweight) all the way up to 147 pounds (welterweight). On November 13, 2010, he will scale that northward distance once more—now going for 151 pounds (within the super welterweight division) against Antonio Margarito of Mexico.
Speaking of the all-time greats (at least at the lighter divisions), one may notice that Pacquiao, Mayweather and Chavez share the most number of divisions in which they held at one time or another championship belts. These divisions are Super Featherweight (130 pounds), Lightweight (135 pounds), and Light Welterweight (140 pounds). That means these three fighters could have answered questions of who among them is superior to whom by mixing it up inside the ring.
As things stand, however, one can only shake his or her head that Pacquiao-Mayweather remains like an elusive dream. Going by the weight classes where they competed in recent years, it would have been within the realm of the possible for the two to meet at either 147 or 154. But whether that fight would remain a dream or a possibility, any one can only guess for as much as he/she likes.
Pacquiao-Chavez?
Probably the greatest fighter that Mexico has ever produced, Julio Cesar Chavez, SR.,is also one of the world’s best boxers.
He was undefeated in his first 90 professional fights. Perhaps an even more awesome part of this extra-ordinary feat was that most (79 to be exact) of these wins did not go the distance. In the current list of greatest fighters, Chavez ranks third in terms of highest knock out rate. Only Mike Tyson (first) and Shane Mosley (second) had outperformed him in this category.
In that remarkable stretch he would eventually collect world titles in 3 different weight divisions—super featherweight, lightweight and light welterweight. He held these titles for a combined period of more than 11 years. Most notable among the opponents who bowed to him included Rocky Lockridge, Edwin Rosario, Jose Luis Ramirez (who had a 101-6-0 win-loss-draw record when they met), Roger Mayweather (twice, both TKO wins for Chavez), Alberto Cortes (undefeated in 44 fights), Angel Hernandez (undefeated in 37 fights), Frankie Mitchell (29-1-0), Hector Camacho (only one defeat in 42 fights), Marty Jakubowski (undefeated in 37 fights), and Andy Holligan (no loss in 21 fights).
One of the most dramatic and unforgettable fights in boxing history pitted Chavez against Meldrick Taylor on March 17, 1990. It was a slam-bang contest. Chavez, in his signature non-stop, action-packed attacking style, tried to engage Taylor in a close-range fighting all throughout. But the unexpectedly game and not intimidated Taylor chose to box him, unloading shots with precision even as he was also busy taking cover. He was leading Chavez on the judges’ scorecards going to the final seconds of the fight. Most boxing fans who saw it conceded that Chavez was on his way to being beaten for the first time. But the Mexican showed his fighting heart to the end, until a fierce exchange of gloves in the closing seconds (something which Taylor could have avoided and run away with the win) hurt Taylor badly that the referee had to stop the fight and declare Chavez the winner by TKO.
His first loss came at his 92nd fight, a split decision setback to Frankie Randall on January 24, 1994. He quickly avenged that loss, however, when he upended Randall in 8 rounds in a rematch 4 months later.
His longest reign was at light welterweight, from 1989 to 1996. Earlier, he was super featherweight champion from 1984 to 1987; and lightweight champion from 1987 to 1989.
Chavez started to uncharacteristically suffer losses in 1996, and onwards until 2005, when he retired at age 43. Devastating losses to Oscar De La Hoya (twice, by TKO), Kostya Tszyu and Grover Wiley forced his otherwise reluctant slide to retirement.
Chavez had a career record of 107 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws out of 115 total fights, for an exceptional 93 percent winning percentage. Of the opponents who defeated him, all were beaten in rematches (except De La Hoya, Grover Wiley; and there was no rematch against Kostya Tszyu). One can argue today that Chavez in effect lost only twice in 115 ring battles, and get away with it unchallenged.
A Pacquiao-Chavez SR., fight could only happen in our imagination. But what a match that might have been at, say, 140 pounds. Would it go the distance? We don’t know. However, what one can be certain to expect from a Pacquiao-Chavez fight would be a night of world-class boxing, a show of athletic excellence, a non-stop entertainment for as long as it lasts.
To read more articles from Hermilando