How Manny Pacquiao became the best boxer in the world
If you were to ask the average person to name one current boxer, chances are that the name they give you wouldn't be an American star like Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Shane Mosley, or one of the non-descript heavyweight champions. It's fair to say that the majority of people would name Manny Pacquiao. The fact that within the span of two years Pacquiao has gone from a boxing champion from the Philippines with little name recognition to the biggest boxing star in the world is almost more amazing than any of his in-ring accomplishments.
Pacquiao went from a great fighter into a superstar on December 6, 2008, when he met legendary American boxer Oscar De La Hoya in a PPV contest in Las Vegas hailed as “The Dream Match”. However, most fight experts thought the match would be a nightmare for Pacquiao. After all, he had weighed in at 134.5 pounds in his previous fight while De La Hoya had last fought 150 pounds. While few experts doubted Pacquiao's heart or abilities, they simply thought that the naturally larger De La Hoya would physically overwhelm Pacquiao.
From the first round, it was obvious that the experts had totally misread the fight. Pacquiao controlled the action from the opening bell, using movement and superior hand speed to frustrate De La Hoya. Pacquiao relentlessly hit De La Hoya with lead rights, and De La Hoya seemed unable to counterpunch and keep up with the speed of the punches. The combination of speed and power was simply too much for De La Hoya, who quit in his corner before round nine. Pacquiao had done the unthinkable – and sent Del La Hoya into retirement in the process – and become the biggest star in the world of boxing.
Pacquiao had already established himself as one of the best boxers in the world before the De La Hoya fight. Pacquiao had fought in three of the greatest series of fights in recent years – a trilogy against Erik Morales and a pair of fights against Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez. However, because those fights had come at the super featherweight level, they failed to gain the interest of the general public. It wasn't until he stopped De La Hoya that he truly became a major superstar.
After establishing himself as a star by beating De La Hoya, Pacquiao cemented his legacy with a two-round destruction of British former world champion Ricky Hatton. Many thought that Hatton would be the toughest opponent Pacquiao had fought to date and that this would neutralize Pacquiao's power. Any doubts about this were laid to rest in the first round, when Pacquiao dropped Hatton twice. He ended the fight with a devastating left hook that knocked Hatton out cold in the second round and earned the Ring Magazine “Knockout of the Year” Award in 2009.
Pacquiao's wins were seen as a stepping stone for an eventual showdown with Floyd Mayweather. After all, Pacquiao had replaced Mayweather as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world after Mayweather retired as the undefeated champion in 2007. When Mayweather announced his comeback in 2009, it seemed like a matter of time before the two fighters hooked up. Some felt that it would be the biggest fight in boxing history.
However, the fight fell apart in negotiations. The key sticking point turned out to be drug testing – Mayweather wanted Olympic style testing for performance enhanching drugs that would go beyond what was required by the boxing comission. Pacquiao balked, claiming he has a fear of needles and not wanting to go through the process of having blood drawn so close to the fight. Members of Mayweather's camp intimated that Pacquiao had something to hide, and the back-and-forth accusations escalated until the fight fell through.
Instead, Pacquiao moved on to fight Joshua Clottey on March 10 at the new Cowboys Stadium in Texas. The fight drew almost 51,000 people, who saw Pacquiao dominate Clottey while scoring a unianimous decision victory. Still, it wasn't the fight people truly wanted to see. Will Pacquiao vs. Mayweather ever happen? Only time will tell.
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