Four years after his last fight, and six years after his last victory, Manny Pacquiao is reportedly returning to the ring on July 19 to take on 30-year-old WBC welterweight titlist Mario Barrios.
This is almost certainly a spectacularly bad idea; Pacquiao is not just older than Barrios, he is shorter, smaller and probably now without the advantages in footwork and speed he once would have boasted. The likelihood is that Pacquiao is in for an embarrassing, but hopefully not damaging, reminder of the relentless onslaught of Father Time; but should the Filipino somehow manage to pull off the gigantic upset, it would surely stand alongside the greatest victories of his decorated career.
In anticipation of July 19 being a sad affair for Pacman fans, here is a reminder of what he was like at his long peak. Pacquiao won 62 fights in his career; here are 10 of the best.
10. Chatchai Sasakul TKO 8
December 4 1998
Before Wild Card, before Freddie Roach, before HBO, Pacquiao was a young, raw 112-pounder. On this day, he was a 19-year-old with three years of professional experience when he took on the defending lineal and WBC flyweight champ. And while the experienced Sasakul was clearly the more accomplished and capable boxer, he ultimately succumbed to Pacquiao's raw power and speed, as Pacman took his first world title.
9. Antonio Margarito
W UD 12
November 13 2010
From Pacquiao's lightest world title to his heaviest. Twelve years and 42 years later, Pacquiao battered Mexico’s Margarito to take a vacant junior middleweight strap in front of 41,000 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, opening up several cuts and severely damaging his opponent’s right eye socket. So one-sided was the thrashing that Pacquiao himself on several occasions asked referee Laurence Cole to stop the massacre.
8. Erik Morales
TKO 10
January 21 2006
Pacquiao’s third meeting with Morales was a more dominant win but this was the more significant performance.
Ten months and two fights earlier, Pacquiao had been outboxed and outpointed by Morales in a fight that painfully exposed his technical limitations at the highest level. Roach resolved to improve the southpaw’s right hook to turn him into a more genuinely two-fisted fighter, and midway through this rematch it all came together, as Pacquiao unleashed on a weight-drained Morales and eventually stopped him. For Morales, it was the beginning of the end, but for Pacquiao it was the start of the most dominant and destructive stretch of his career.
7. Keith Thurman
W SD 12
July 20 2019
While not the most memorable, dominant or spectacular win of Pacquiao’s career, it was his most recent (so far) victory, inflicting the first career defeat on Thurman at a time when Pacquiao was 40 years old. The Filipino dropped the American in round 1 and dominated the first several frames; Thurman came back into the contest in the middle rounds but a Pacquiao body shot in the tenth hurt Thurman badly to help secure the win.
6. David Diaz
TKO 9
June 28 2008
The fact that Diaz was far from the most accomplished opponent Pacquiao faced doesn’t diminish the brilliance of this performance, which saw Pacquiao add a lightweight title to his growing collection. Diaz was far from a total scrub; he was coming off wins over Morales and Jose Armando Santa Cruz and would outpoint Jesus Chavez in his next outing, but he couldn’t lay a glove on Pacquiao, who assaulted him from the opening bell before dropping and stopping him.
5. Marco Antonio Barrera
TKO 11
November 15 2003
Barrera was on a roll, with his most recent outings including wins over Morales, Naseem Hamed, Johnny Tapia, and Kevin Kelley. But he was utterly dominated in an eye-opening performance by Pacquiao, who dropped him in the third and 11th and stopped him in a statement victory.
4. Oscar De La Hoya
TKO 8
December 6 2008
Terence Crawford supporters who want people to believe in the junior middleweight titlist’s challenge of super-middleweight Canelo Alvarez may want to point to this evening as Exhibit A. De La Hoya was most recently a 154 pound titlist, and Pacquiao was lightweight champ, when they agreed to meet at welterweight. The Golden Boy was a big favorite, but a combination of his decline and his struggles to make weight, as well as Pacquiao’s ferocity, turned this into a bloodbath. De La Hoya was beaten into acquiescence long before his corner pulled him from the contest, and his career.
3. Ricky Hatton
KO 2
Once again, Pacquiao’s speed, footwork, and angles proved overwhelming. Hatton went down in a corner at the end of round 1 after a Pacman barrage; after trying to impose himself in round 2, he walked into a perfect short left hand that landed on the point of the chin and knocked him out cold before he hit the canvas. As spectacular a one-punch knockout as you will see.
2. Lehlo Ledwaba
TKO 6
June 23 2001
The bout that began it all. Pacquiao had only recently arrived in the US and hooked up with trainer Freddie Roach when he got the call to face 122 pound champ Ledwaba. The South African was an established champion and highly regarded, but he was bloodied in round 1, decked in round 2, battered in rounds 3, 4, and 5, and sent to the floor twice more and stopped in the sixth. Ledwaba entered the ring 33-1-1; after losing to Pacquiao, he went 3-4 before retiring.
1. Miguel Cotto
TKO 12
November 14 2009
For four or five rounds, this was a barn-burner, as Cotto attempted to give as good as he got. He bounced up from a third-round knockdown and rose more tentatively from another in the fourth, but once again, the blizzard of punches from all angles proved too much, Cotto effectively beaten long before the eventual stoppage. With this win, Pacquiao picked up a world title in his seventh division, his promoter Bob Arum proclaiming him as “the greatest boxer I’ve ever seen.” It was Pacquiao’s greatest night and also arguably the fight in which he peaked; he would not score another stoppage for nine years and 14 fights.
Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, including most recently Arctic Passages: Ice, Exploration, and the Battle for Power at the Top of the World, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.