The All Time Great completely proven 6 fight wonder vs the Pacquiao that destroyed Barrera. Wha'a'g'wan?
There's nobody on this forum who ranks Loma P4P #1. HBO hypes him as P4P # 1, but they can't be taken seriously. When Golov fights, HBO calls him the P4P #1. When Crawford fights, they call him the P4P #1. When Ward fights (well, when he last fought in 1956), they call him the P4P #1. So on and so forth...
Loma definitely has the movement and inside game to trouble Pac, if he has all the other things necessary we have no idea as of yet
He has the talent and skill level to given Manny a fight, but we know nothing about his intangibles. Prime Pac was too good, and too fast for Loma to just outbox like he's been doing with these 2nd rate fighters so far. To his credit, he nullified Russell's speed very well, but in Pac we're talking about a different type of athleticism than Russell Junior, because it's speed AND one punch power coming at you from weird angles. Russell Junior has very fast hands, but his foot speed and reflexes aren't really all that special. I think Loma has too much of the desire to wanna be this "artist" in the ring to beat Pac, as the younger Pac was truly willing to walk through fire to destroy a guy, unlike the no-killer instinct Politician we see today.
Even if he were to beat The Jackal (which is no given), a 35-year-old Rigo is different from a 25-year-old Pac. I know this forum worships Rigo, but the truth is, Pac would havee clocked Rigo's no chin having ass.
People tend to cross breed the fabulous footwork and intelligence of higher weight Pac with the pure ferocity and speed of lighter weight Pac, but the two guys never actually met. Pac is dangerous and I'd probably favor him to beat Loma because he's so strong and active but he gets out boxed when he's not hurting Loma. But Pac MUST catch Rigo, and it's not just a matter of Rigo spinning and surviving for for points, he can fuck crazy feather weight Pac up with his counter punching. 126 Pac is so open that it's him that's up against the clock trying to catch Rigo before he gets knocked out or busted up, not Rigo hoping to last the distance and win rounds. Pac is such a danger that Rigo would have to fight fire with fire and he's a sharper shooter. That's not to say that Pac wouldn't catch him.
Yes they did. In 09 those two fighters converged. See the Hatton and Cotto fights. Even go back earlier than that. The Pac that destroyed Morales in their third fight was a finished product.
I don't know about that. Obviously Pacquiao COULD do that, he's an all time great, but Rigondeaux is brilliant and could conceivably take advantage of Pavquiao's rawness. It's not that far fetched.
Pac didn't have the raw power at those weights that he did at lower weights. He was bip bip bapping instead of bam bam booming. Pfp, that's a better version of Pac but the 126 version has a better shot at Rigo because he was a legit puncher and no version of pac was as good a boxer as Rigo. People tend to credit lighter weight pac with being swift footed and elusive like the old pac and they tend to act like Higher weight Pac was a dangerous puncher. It doesn't say much for the "finished product" if he got out boxed by Erik Morales. Lol
I said the third fight. Really, that third fight marked the change in Pac where he became more complete. Even in the first Morales fight he was still too raw and one dimensional. Kinda like how Duran was just this vicious, raw killer in the early 70s, then by the late 70s had become a finished product as a great offensive techncian with defense, COMBINED with the ferocity. Obviously, Pac never had the same skill level and defense as Duran, just pointing out the change in Pac.