Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is the modern day Henry Armstrong, not Manny Pacquiao.
What Canelo has done is extraordinary. He didn’t need to cherry pick opponents or fight them at their weakest like Pacquiao did. He fought the baddest men available and won.
Canelo currently holds middleweight, super-middleweight, and light heavyweight titles, that hasn’t been done since Henry Armstrong.
This is a feat only a special fighter can achieve. When Canelo went up to light heavyweight he took on the biggest puncher in the division Sergey Kovalev.
He knocked Kovalev out and took the IBF 175 pound title which should secure his status as the 2019 “Fighter of the Year”. This is what great fighters do, they go up against the scariest guys and prove they have what it takes to beat them.
Pacquiao has never fought a fierce puncher. He avoided them like the plague especially after the great Juan Manuel Marquez put him to sleep. Most of his recent opponents have been average punchers at best.
Another guy the Canelo critics claimed he was scared to fight was Gennady Golovkin. GGG was considered the most feared middleweight in the division and Canelo said bring it on!
He fought Golovkin twice and beat him twice. The first fight was ruled a draw, but true boxing heads knew Canelo won that. In the rematch, Canelo showed who was the better man and rightfully won the second bout giving GGG his very first professional defeat.
He destroyed the boogeyman of the division, making the haters eat their words.
Canelo has won legitimate world titles at 154, 160, 168, and 175 lbs.
Let us move onto Manny Pacquiao’s career.
I always hear the exaggerated hype behind Pacquiao’s rise in weight. This was mainly pushed by HBO and Top Rank promotions to make him look like a mythical figure, when in reality he was the product of careful matchmaking and good marketing.
The claim that Pacquiao is an 8-division world champion is false.
He never won an official belt at 126 or 140 lbs making him only a six division champion.
Pacquiao’s win over Juan Manuel Marquez for the WBC super featherweight title at 130 lbs was a flat out robbery, everyone who knows boxing knows Pacquiao was given a gift in that fight.
When he went up to lightweight he fought David Diaz who was regarded as the weakest champion in the division for the WBC lightweight title. After he stopped Diaz, He avoided a unification bout with WBA, WBO, and IBF lightweight champion Nate Campbell.
Instead of fighting for the undisputed lightweight championship, he vacated his WBC title and moved up to 147 lbs to fight a drained and washed up Oscar De La Hoya. After he beat a shot De La Hoya, the casual fans and media started hyping him up.
Pacquiao’s fifth weight division title would come against a drained and damaged WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto. Freddie Roach insisted that Pacquiao face Cotto at a catchweight of 145 lbs to weaken him and it showed in the fight. Cotto was also damaged from the beating he took from Antonio Margarito.
The sixth weight division belt came when he fought a damaged and drained Antonio Margarito. Margarito was forced to fight Pacquiao at a catchweight of 150 lbs and the WBC basically handed the vacant junior middleweight title on a platter to Pacquiao. Margarito was coming off a layoff and a vicious beating by the hands of Sugar Shane Mosley.
If you noticed the common theme here is that Pacquiao fights guys mainly at their weakest or when they’re drained or damaged goods. He has yet to fight an opponent in their prime and coming off a dominant win.
He avoided Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. to fight Keith Thurman instead. Thurman was the most vulnerable of the champions. He was coming off a long layoff due to injury, and was rocked badly by Josesito Lopez before landing the fight with Pacquiao. Seeing Thurman almost knocked out by Lopez in his comeback fight was the main reason Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach took the fight.
If Thurman had knocked Lopez out cold and looked fresh they wouldn’t fight him. They would’ve probably continued defending the WBA regular title he won from Lucas Matthysse against Mike Alvarado or Luis Collazo caliber opponents.
As you can see, Canelo Alvarez has the far more impressive climb in weight than Manny Pacquiao.
Big time boxing fan. Grew up in East Los, and been an avid follower of the sport and the legends like Julio Cesar Chavez, Vicente Saldivar, Salvador Sanchez, Carlos Zarate, Erik Morales, Ricardo Lopez and Juan Manuel Marquez just to name a few.
Current favorite boxers: Canelo Alvarez, Mikey Garcia.