Is Manny Pacquiao a "Fraud"? Or Just well managed?

Although Manny Pacquiao is unarguably one of the faces of the boxing world today, in fact he's probably THE face of modern day boxing, though is the Pacman a fake? Has he had help getting to the position that he holds today amongst the sports pound 4 pound elite? I'm not talking HGH (Human Growth Hormone), EPO (Erythropoietin), Steroids, “A-Side Meth” or any other performance enhancing drugs, just clever management and good (or lucky) timing.

His second world title win was against Lehlohonolo Ledwaba, a fighter appearing in the USA for just the 2^nd time in a 35 fight career. His only previous fight in the US was against Edison Valencia Diaz who was 14-3 and his recent title defences had come against fighters like Arnel Barotillo (25-10-3) and Carlos Contreras (17-4-2). This isn't a hit at Pacquiao but whenLedwaba faces soft touches coming in and then goes 3-4 after facing Pacquiao with out ever making the Bantamweight limit again it's fair to say he probably wasn't that great at the time or that comfortable at the weight. Good timing maybe in taking a legitimate looking champion away from home and beating him, though a fight that looks less impressive looking back.

Manny Pacquiao v Juan Manuel Marquez

Of course his infamous “draw” with Juan Manuel Marquez is another example of Pacquiao receiving some “luck”. Marquez was dropped 3-times in the opening round of that fight then boxed the socks of Pacquiao for almost every minute of the fight with Pacquiao winning maybe 3 of the following 11 rounds. The score of John Stewart's (115-110 in favour of Pacquiao) looks somewhat questionable to say the least, with a 113-112 scoreline to Pacquiao arguably being the only way you could have scored it to Pacquiao, following the line of Burt Clements (who scored it 113-113 though only gave the opening round as a 10-7 not a 10-6 as I had it). Though in all honest Marquez won, probably by 3 or 4 points, he lost round 8 clearly but all the other rounds he came close to winning were close and not clear.

The second fight I had closer than the first, though again Marquez's skill with counter punches seemed to be the telling factor. He was landing clean clear counter shots time and time again the CompuBox Punchstats said it all, Marquez threw 108 punches less but landed more. Impressively he landed at around 34% to Pacquiao's 25%. The vast majority of the press felt that Marquez had won the fight including places like Fightwriter, Ring Magazine, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Fight News, Top Rank TV and even fighter Nonito Donaire (Pacquiao's fellow Filipino).

Due to those two fights boxing fans have often demanded a 3^rd fight between the two though one that hasn't been forth coming and has started to look like it'll never be happening. Marquez won the majority of the rounds and had he not suffered the 4 knockdowns (3 in the first fight and 1 in the second) he would have been 1-0-1 against Pacquiao on paper and 2-0 in the minds of everyone who has watched the fight.

Between the 2 Marquez fights Pacquiao lost to Erik Morales. Though excuses have been made regarding Pacquiao needing to do a blood test the night before the fight. The thing is that Morales, who had to be in the lead going into the 12 had landed more shots and at a better rate. Even after being told not to get over-confident Morales switched to southpaw and waged war in one of the most memorable rounds of recent boxing history and still Pacquiao couldn't drop Morales. After this win for Morales he would go on a 4 fight losing streak, including 2 rematches with Pacquiao before hanging up his gloves in 2007 (and making a subsequent return to the sport in 2010). The 2 losses to Pacquiao were certainly against a Morales that was on the decline, perhaps the Morales win was the final last “Hurrah” for a great Mexican (who challenges Marcos Maidana for the vacant WBA Light Welterweight title in the coming months).

Though it's really his rise since 2008 that has made Manny a star as he took titles in the Lightweight, Light Welterweight (Ring and IBO) and Welterweight divisions and scored famous wins over well known and respected opponents. Lets look at those actual reigns.

He beat David Diaz for the WBC Lightweight title, Diaz was only a paper champion in all honesty and had been beaten by Erik Morales (a very faded Erik Morales) in what would be Morales final first before his retirement. Poor judging robbed Morales of his place in history (of becoming the 1^st Mexican to be a 4^th weight champion) and Diaz was a stationary target for Pacquiao who landed at will on Diaz. Pacquiao landed well over twice as many shots as Diaz and dominated from the opening bell. The problem wasn't necessarily the opponent but what Pacquiao did afterwards, have gave up the title and never came back to the division. Of course Manny would choose instead to face Oscar De La Hoya in a multi-million dollar fight. 19 months prior Oscar had given Mayweather a close run split decision at Light Middleweight then choose to go to Welterweight to try and tempt Mayweather into a rematch, Mayweather had decided to retire and Pacquiao instead took up the offer. Pacquiao dominated De La Hoya from the opening bell though De La Hoya looked dead at the weight and was almost skeletal.

Two months after Pacquiao had battered De La Hoya his old adversary Juan Manuel Marquez had picked up the WBA “Super” and WBO Lightweight titles and left the door very open to the much wanted trilogy fight. Instead Pacquiao signed to face Ricky Hatton for the 140lbs Ring and IBO titles. Hatton had been knocked out against Mayweather 17 months earlier and had looked terrible against Juan Lazcano almost a year prior to Pacquiao facing him. Although he had beaten Lazcano he had been shaken by nothing punches and only had a solid win over Paul Malignaggi since then, Malignaggi also a none puncher. Pacquiao would drop Hatton twice in the opening round before stopping him in the 2^nd. Yes whilst it was dominant Hatton wasn't the fighter he had once been.

Since then he has faced “bigger men” though they have often had some sort of disadvantages. Both Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito were hindered by catchweights (in title fights as well), each of the 3 men (including Joshua Clottey) were being promoted by Top Rank (the same promotional company as Pacquiao) and they were all slow stand in front of you types, a bit like David Diaz. Worst of all weren't the catch weight stipulations, but the recent form of all 3 men.
Miguel Cotto had gone 2-1 in his previous 3, with a KO loss to Margarito, a paper title fight against Britains Michael Jennings and a close fight with Joshua Clottey.
Clottey, who effectively no showed against Pacquiao and stood as a human punch bag had lost his previous fight to Cotto and gone 5-2 (also losing to Margarito). He was incredibly average at best.
Margarito though was the worst of the bunch. He'd not only gone 4-2 in his previous 6, he's been knocked out badly by Shane Mosley and fought just once in over 20 months. Many fans felt he shouldn't have been fighting at all due to the illegal substance found in his gloves prior to the Mosley fight.

Looking at his record going back to the Diaz fight may look good on paper, though all 5 fighters were tailor made for Pacquiao. They were slower than him and effectively stood there taking shots. Cotto and Margarito did have some success though not enough to really trouble Pacquiao that much overall, though Pacquiao used his speed and ring smarts to dominate the fighters. Instead of facing a skilled, or fast fighter he has faced brawlers (and a shot to pieces De La Hoya).

Although the much wanted fight with Mayweather is starting to look unlikely the upcoming fight with Mosley is again against a slower fighter who will look somewhat stationary in comparison to the speedy Pacquiao. De La Hoya older and now Mosley is older, Maqruez is older as well. Will Pacquiao face a skilled prime fighter? Or will he spend the rest of his career facing limited brawlers that are slower and less skilled than he? He's certainly being managed and matched against slower fighters rather than as Bernard Hopkins put it “Slick...fighters”. Has it been chance? Or has it been good management to avoid a 3^rd fight with Marquez, the Mayweather bout falling through several times and no other slick fighters since the Marquez rematch?