I'm a huge Pacquiao fan as some of you may know. Up there with guys like Duran, Pryor and Armstrong for me in terms of both accomplishments as well as unending machine gun perpetual motion aggression. He's had some great performances: vs De La Hoya vs Hatton vs Cotto vs Barrera 1 For me, however, his single greatest performance was the 3rd Morales fight. Just watched it again. That was PEAK Pacquiao IMO. Morales was a well skilled fighter with toughness and heart for days...and Pacquiao just walked through him like a hot knife through butter. He was an absolute machine that night....fuck! There was a reason why tough as nails Morales quit....and you can't blame him. Pacquiao was like a man possessed...like he was just living tissue over a metal endo skeleton. On that night Pacquiao couldn't be bargained with. He couldn't be reasoned with. He didn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And he absolutely did not stop... ever, until Morales was.....done! What do you think?
Morales 3 isn't a bad choice, but I'd have to go with his breakout performance.... Barrera. No, the Pac of the Barrera fight wasn't at his absolute peak as a finished product, but he was at his absolute peak as a relentless offensive force. All things considered, probably one of the 10-20 best performances of all time, when you consider he was a heavy underdog. I can't list Cotto or Hatton, since I expected him to destroy both guys - despite what others on the forum thought. But the Barrera performance shocked us all.
The Barrera fight was a hell of a shock. I was not expecting this. But for me, it's still the Cotto fight. He was vicious and relentless in that fight, and walked through Cotto punches like they were nothing. He literally made Cotto like a bum, and nobody was able to do that beside him. That Pac would have beat PBF imo
The first Barrera fight for sure and the David Diaz fight. The 3rd Morales fight as well. He was on PEDs against Cotto, plus he weight drained him. Still think he would have beaten him.
When you put it in proper perspective, Barrera was a CONSENSUS top 3-5 P4Pder going into the Pac fight. Cotto was considered damaged goods going into the Pac fight.
Only persons who considered him damaged goods are the sissies that think that a fighter is ruined once he get koed once. Sure he didn't look too hot against Clottey, but Clottey was a quality fighter and Cotto was obviouslyhindered by the cut. I agree that MAB was a better figthter p4p than Cotto at the time of their respective bouts with Pac, but Cotto was a much bigger fighter, which is why this win was more impressive imo
I was going to say cotto too, but at the time, there was still talk that he'd been ruined by margarito. In hindsight though, gotta go with cotto.
Bigdawg can Confirm REED Actually PREDICTED Manny to Beat Barrera the 1st Time... REED Saw the Ledwaba Fight and Had Seen Emmanuel Lucero Fight a Handful of Times on ESPN, or Whatever Network...Pacquiao Wasn't Hungry, he was STARVING Back Then (Not LITERALLY, Ass Holes) and DESTROYED Lucero in a Whirlwind, High Intensity Manner that REED KNEW Would Bother Barrera... Fantastic Performance for Sure, and Manny's Got MANY Other Great Fights to Choose From Too...Ledwaba, Marquez I (Early Doors, For Certain), Morales III, Diaz, DeLa and Cotto, Undeniably... REED Goes with the Hatton Fight Though...All Things Considered, it's # 1 in REED's Opinion...DeLa was SHOT to Shit, so There was Still DOUBT about Manny @ a Higher Weight...The Hatton Fight CRYSTALLIZED Pacquiao's Prowess @ Height Weights, the Remaining Bouts Only ADDED to that Revelation... Hatton had ONLY Lost to Floyd to this Point, By a Spirited, Entertaining, 10 Round TKO...He was UNDEfuckingFEATED @ 140...Despite Being 1 of the BETTER Jr. Welters in History, Ricky Hatton had a Near Death Experience w/Manny Pacquiao's Lil' Ass...VERY Rarely is a World Class Fighter Fucked Up THAT Badly, THAT Early in a Fight, by a Naturally SMALLER Man... REED
Im with REED in that I'd take the Hatton performance over Cotto, despite the fact that Cotto is a much better fighter than Hatton. But really, you can choose between Barrera 1, Morales 3, Hatton, and Cotto as his best performance, and no answer would be wrong. Pac is similar to Tyson in terms of number of peak performance choices, only I think Mike has 5 performances that are arguably his best.
Put it this way... there's a lot of welterweights in history who beat the Pac of the Cotto fight. There's not a lot of featherweights in history who beat the Pac of the Barrera fight.
word. With Tyson you could argue Berbick, Tubbs, Holmes, Thomas, Spinks...and with Pacquiao you can argue at least 4.
I was gonna say Berbick, Thomas, Holmes, Biggs, or Spinks. Usually I either way Biggs, Thomas, or Spinks, but you know what? Considering that NOBODY before or after was able to destroy Larry, the Holmes fight should probably be considered his best.
I think it was just ´okay´: An almost shot, no legs left, been in too many wars Morales was pretty offensive for a 11/2 rounds then Pac destroyed him. The first Barrera fight was more impressive:
For the record, I remember very well picking Pac by TKO 6 over Hatton. But a good percentage of the forum was picking Hatton, although I'm sure they won't admit it now.
The Hatton fight pretty much went exactly as I expected it to. No surprise for me. Same with the Cotto fight. The De La Hoya fight was THE big surprise for me. I expected De La Hoya to absolutely BUTCHER pacquiao. Of all predictions I've ever done that was my worst performance.
I picked Oscar by decision because even though Manny was moving up, I figured he was better than Forbes and Oscar looked shot to pieces in that fight as well. Couldn't let his hands go, showed no power, and his face was marked up considering how little Forbes actually landed in terms of clean shots. I figured Oscar would just keep Manny at bay with the jab and hit him hard enough to keep him honest, but nah I wasn't expecting a butchering. Oscar was not that guy anymore. But it must be said he looked worse than ever when fighting Pac. He was beyond shot in that fight.
Honestly, i picked odh too. Interestingly, my wife picked pacquiao and even bet on him to win, and made some money as a result.
Barrera 1 and Hatton fights had the biggest Wow!-factor which I find important as a sports fan. Pac's most complete performance was the Diaz bout
Agreed. So it doesn't really figure as a stand-out Pacquiao performance because De La Hoya was slow & shot at the time? Same question for the Hatton KO2: a 'Manchestahhhhrrr' bum who gorged on beer and fry-ups all the time.
Holmes was a grandpa when he fought Tyson. That was a mismatch from the start and absolutely no one was giving Holmes a chance to win. This is like giving props to Tzsyu for stopping geriatric Chavez or Joppy stopping ancient Duran.
The point is, unlike Chavez who was finished, Holmes went on to beat guys like Mercer and went the distance with Holyfield and McCall in future title challenges. He was past his best but was far from finished, and that Tyson was the only man to stop him was impressive, even if Holmes wasn't given a shot of winning.
It's beyond idiotic to compare the Tyson version of Holmes with Chavez and Duran, but not surprising coming from you. Chavez and Duran were COMPLETELY SHOT when they fought Tszyu and Joppy. Hell, Duran had been shot for almost 10 years, and was almost 20 years past his peak. And people were saying that Tszyu-Chavez shouldn't even be sanctioned, and many feared for JCC's life. Holmes would go onto school an undefeated Mercer and give a prime Holy problems 3-4 years AFTER the Tyson fight. He was past his prime for sure, but not shot, and DEFINITELY not shot to the degree of Chavez/Duran. Try again.
Chavez was BEYOND finished when he fought Tszyu. He was just as shot as Tyson was against Danny Williams. Willy Wise had just beat his ass for Christ sake!
