By Harry Steinkohl
Eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao, 54-3-2 (38 KO), has left a path of destruction through his opponents since he moved up to lightweight and challenged David Diaz who was the WBC champion at the time. He made history by capturing his seventh and eight titles along the way. Unbeknownst to most who follow the sport he has been cleaning up boxing on thug at a time.
First Manny destroyed welterweight Oscar De La Hoya, most famous for his Gold Medal, and for his embarrassing fishnet photos. Pacquiao sent “The Golden Boy” into retirement swollen, bruised, and battered. We have since found out that Oscar has been a big user of cocaine and he’s currently recovering in rehab. Next up for “The Pacman” was Britain’s Ricky Hatton, the IBO super lightweight champion. Ricky Hatton flaunted his ale drinking party lifestyle making an embarrassment of himself and the sport he represented. After Pacquiao knocked the red headed Hatton into retirement it was discovered that Hatton had a taste for the booger sugar like De La Hoya.
In his next fight Pacquiao challenged WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, a known womanizer who was accused of sexual harassment before his fight with Pacquiao. Manny dominated the bigger Cotto, he even toyed with him and let him stay around until the 12th round before forcing the referee to step in and stop the brutality. Manny, like the women Cotto sexually harassed was much smaller than Cotto. Hopefully Cotto learned his lesson about trying to put his hands on people smaller than him.
Manny made his first welterweight title defense against Joshua Clottey. Not much can be said about Clottey except that he was revealed to be a man afraid to be KO’d by a much smaller fighter. Joshua Clottey has not fought since and most boxing fans hope we aren’t forced to sit through one of his fights again.
Last November Manny went all the way up to the super welterweight class and challenged Antonio “Hands of Plaster” Margarito. Margarito is a cheater. He was caught red handed trying to go into a fight with Shane Mosley with plaster in his gloves. This is a serious crime and he should not have been allowed to fight again. Pacquiao brutally beat Margarito to a bloody swollen pulp over 12 rounds, breaking his eye socket in the process. After 3 surgeries it is still unclear if Margarito will fight again. One things is clear, Manny Pacquiao did his best to rid the sport of this trash.
Most recently Pacquiao took on Shane Mosley. A known steroid user. Unlike Floyd Mayweather Manny Pacquiao didn’t make Shane take blood tests, so we won’t ever know if Shane was on steroids again for his fight with Pacquiao. After an embarrassing performance that saw Mosley run around the ring, not allowing Pacquiao to land his combinations and score the KO, Mosley said he might not fight again.
Manny Pacquiao might be the greatest fighter of all time. The things he has done in the ring combined with what he has done outside of it make him a once in a lifetime fighter. We are lucky to get to watch his rise and assault on the history books, as well as the trash of the sport. For taking out boxing’s trash one bag at a time, we thank you Manny Pacquiao.
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