The great Manny ‘Pac-Man’ Pacquiao turned professional in 1995 and in 2019 at the age of 40 he became the oldest fighter to win a welterweight title when he beat undefeated WBA champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman on July 20, 2019.
Pacquiao still competes at the highest level in boxing. Undersized and at an advanced age, he still defies logic with his performances, and to top it off he is just a part-time fighter who is busy being a full-time Senator in the Philippines.
It just goes to show how great Pacquiao is if he is beating these younger fighters while holding several jobs and training only when he has spare time from his busy schedule. Most fighters have to focus on boxing full-time to be great, not Pacquiao, he is basically beating these guys with a half-assed training schedule.
Yet, the majority of boxing scribes have him near the bottom of the pound for pound list.
I have Pacquiao on top of my pound for pound list because of what he has achieved and what he is currently achieving. He might be past his prime but he is not washed up.
His win over Keith Thurman beats out any win on Terence Crawford or Errol Spence’s resume. These top two undefeated welterweight’s won’t even fight each other. Crawford and Spence are both highly skilled but to put them above Pacquiao at this stage, I just can’t.
Thurman was the top welterweight among the younger crop. He was undefeated and holds wins over Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter, he also held two titles the WBC and WBA before his injury and hiatus. Thurman was the top welterweight and having a year layoff to recover shouldn’t put him down on the list, Floyd Mayweather would take long breaks and comeback and he would automatically climb the list, so why punish Thurman for a short inactivity due to injury? It wasn’t like he retired to avoid competition like Mayweather would do.
Mayweather would take long breaks so the other welterweights would fight each other and he could cherry pick which one he would face next and let them either show weakness or hope they got into a war so they would be softened up before he challenged them. He would take guys on if they show vulnerability or make some contract stipulations to make sure he had advantages heading into the fight.
Pacquiao beat prime 10 years younger Thurman a guy Mayweather never shown interest in fighting. In fact, Mayweather pretty much ducked all the young dangerous welterweights at PBC, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, and Errol Spence and opted to face Andre Berto and UFC fighter Conor McGregor instead.
I do have Spence above Crawford simply for the fact that he unified the IBF and WBC welterweight belts when he narrowly beat Shawn Porter in a close action filled fight.
Crawford is stuck in a pickle over at Top Rank because he doesn’t have any credible opponents to fight to climb him up the ladder, all the top welterweights are over at PBC (Premier Boxing Champions).
Pacquiao is only the second fighter to win “Fighter of the Decade,” Roy Jones Jr won it first for the 90s era.
Pacquiao is boxing’s only 8-division world champion, he is also the oldest welterweight champion in history and has fought nothing but tough fighters at his late stage career.
His fight with Australian Jeff Horn in his hometown of Brisbane, Australia was one of the worst robberies on live TV, if he didn’t get robbed of a rightful decision victory he would have been on a five fight win streak since losing to Floyd Mayweather in 2015.
My top ten pound for pound right now:
1. Manny Pacquiao
2. Vasyl Lomachenko
3. Oleksandr Usyk
4. Terence Crawford
5. Canelo Alvarez
6. Errol Spence Jr.
7. Naoya Inoue
8. Artur Beterbiev
9. Deontay Wilder
10. Juan Francisco Estrada
I know some people will get mad that Canelo is not on the top of my list. I personally like Canelo Alvarez but the fact of the matter is he failed a drug test. Yes, they gave him a pass and he cleared his name in the commissions eyes but he was still suspended and he tested positive. Also he had some very close fights that I thought he got gifts in like both Gennady Golovkin fights and the Daniel Jacobs fight.
Most scribes don’t add heavyweights to the list but I feel Deontay Wilder belongs in there. He knocks out everyone he faces and ducks nobody. I felt he lost the Tyson Fury fight but it doesn’t discredit his warrior mentality. He tried to fight Anthony Joshua but the British heavyweight star refused to do business in a fair manner and then got knocked out by Andy Ruiz in a cherry pick gone wrong bout.
Everyone can agree to disagree with who they have at the top of the pound for pound list.
The bottom line is, I have Manny Pacquiao at the top because of his career longevity his career at the top level is not over and we must take into consideration the entirety of his career. He isn’t fighting some bottom of the barrel journeyman to pad his record or get easy wins, he is fighting top ten guys in his division and winning that has to count for something.
I am an avid fan of boxing and video games. My first fight of memory was watching Prince Naseem Hamed destroy Kevin Kelly. I enjoy all aspects of the sport. My favorite current boxer is Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. My favorite boxing match is Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo 1. I love watching boxing on Pay-Per-View more than being there live because you can really enjoy and watch the action from the best view.