Our country is always crazy about Manny Pacquiao, one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world today. Anyway, who doesn’t know him? Dubbed as a “People’s Champ” by President Arroyo, he holds the Filipinos’ honor every time he climbs the ring. His punches depict every hard struggle the Filipino has gone through in life. To us Filipinos, he is the true symbol of a nation that vows “to be great again”. It is no ordinary moment to be bestowed with titles like, “Champion for Life”, “People’s Champ”, or “No.1 Boxer”. But the question is, is the “People’s Champ” a world champion?
Fights with the great title-holders
Manny Pacquiao, a great knockout artist, has dethroned many title holders from their thrones. He has usurped them of their hard-earned titles at the most surprising and unexpected moments. As late replacement, he knocked out the South African champ Lehlohonolo Ledwaba at their 2001 bout and stripped him of his IBF world super bantamweight title. It was his big break, and bigger breaks followed.
Winning and defending boxing titles numerous times, Pacquiao rapidly gained the attention of the world boxing community. He had faced (and defeated) the likes of Erik Morales, Antonio Barera, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Hector Velasquez. His victories against Mexicans earned him the moniker, “the Mexicutioner”. He even shamed Hispanic-Americans David Diaz and boxing icon Oscar Dela Hoya right on their own turf.
Despite these achievements, they are not enough to regard Manny as a world champion.
No fights with Europeans
The People’s Champ has accomplished 53 fights under his belt. Of the 53 fights, he fought against his own countrymen 20 times; Mexicans, 12 times; Thais, seven times; thrice with South Koreans; twice with Americans, Australians, and Japanese; and once with Indonesian, South African, Dominican, Colombian, and Kazakh boxers. From that, it can be seen that he has never fought with any European boxers.
The absence of Europeans in his fighting career proves Pacquiao is no world champion yet. If he considers fighting them, he could face some unknown Europeans in his division, most especially against Eastern Europeans like Russians and Ukrainians. If given the choice, Pacquiao can move up to another division. There, he will come face-to-face with the Klitschko Brothers (Russia) and Kevin McBride (Ireland), among others. If he decides to remain in his weight division, he may stand in a tip-off with Yuri Romanov of Russia. If he wants to go down, he could clash with other notable fighters like Britons Nicky Cook and Kevin Mitchell or American Kelly Pavlik. If he can climb to middleweight, a match with Italian-Scottish Joe Calzeghe might be a possibility, if he could be enticed out of retirement.
At this moment, Pacquiao is scheduled to engage welterweight champion Ricky “the Hitman” Hatton of England this coming May. The latter will be the only European in his list of boxing opponents. He will sure use his knock-out artistry to the fullest against an opponent who loves to “hit” a lot.
No fights with Afro-Americans too
Not only has Manny Pacquiao failed to fight with European boxers, but he is also missing any Afro-Americans from his list of battles. A fight with any African-American can be noteworthy on his record and raise his global stature. Try pitting an African- American hardened by the street life of New York City against a man humbled by the poverty in the Philippine provinces. It would be a blood fest, reminiscence of the jungle of the “Thrillia in Manila” between legends Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.
Being one of the greatest, Pacquiao can face Floyd Mayweather Jr., the undefeated world champion. Mayweather coming out of retirement is obvious: an undefeated career is not complete without a fight against the world’s current No.1 pound-for-pound pugilist. A brawl between the two hungry fighters can become one of the greatest fights in sports history. There is a great possibility that such match will happen.
Boxing organizers are picking WBC Junior Middleweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to take on Pacquiao after his fight with Hatton if Mayweather will back out. Another Mexican? Not again.
Pacquiao had passed the opportunity to combat other great Afro-American boxers like Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, and Hasim Rahman. Why he would not take on them? They get to fight with Mexicans too. Why not him? Also, he failed to set his sights on boxers with African descent, like Puerto Ricans and Cubans.
Conclusion
Pacquiao is no world champion yet. The media can hype him as No.1, but this is utterly useless. His lack of fighting experiences against punchers coming from races that helped define the sport is like NBA superstar Kobe Bryant scoring 50 points or more against a team whose members don’t score much. Pacquiao’s career isn’t complete without fighting European or Afro-American boxers. For his last two fights before retirement, he must make sure to fight any of them. Pacquiao can never be considered a well-round champion if he fails to fight boxers who share the same caliber and reputation with him.
