Manny Pacquiao: Last 5 Fights (part 1)

Manny Pacquiao has been very successful for his past 11 fights that came after the Unanimous Decision lost to the great Eric Morales of Mexico (that was their first meeting for their trilogy that won by Pacquiao). Here I'm going to present, or re-present, the Pacman's last 5 fights; maybe from here we can come up to a conclusion on who is going to be the underdog (and who's not) if/when the mega-fight Pacquiao-Mayweather will take place.

Here are the last 5 fights of Pacquiao [starting from recent]:
- Miguel Angel Cotto | TKO in Rd 12 @ 145lbs
- Ricky Hatton | KO in Rd 2 @ 140lbs
- Oscar De La Hoya | RTD in Rd 8 @ 145lbs
- David Diaz | TKO in Rd 9 @ 135lbs
- Juan Manuel Marquez | Split Decision @ 130lbs

All those fights had graced the resume of Manny as he had climbed up the weights, more than enough for him to be the pound-for-pound king of boxing. Now, what happened to those fights, let's take a look:


Unfinished Business|Rematch with Marquez

On March 15, 2008, in a rematch against Juan Manuel Márquez called "Unfinished Business", Pacquiao won via a disputed split decision. The fight was held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. With victory, Pacquiao won the WBC and Ring Magazine super featherweight belts (as well as the lineal junior lightweight title), making him the first Filipino to win three major world titles in three different weight divisions (Pacquiao was a former WBC flyweight champion and former IBF super bantamweight champion). However, with his Ring Magazine featherweight belt, Pacquiao had de facto won four world titles in four different weight classes at this point.

The fight was a close hard fought battle, during which both fighters received cuts. Throughout the fight Márquez landed the most punches at a higher percentage; however, the decisive factor proved to be a third round knockdown, wherein Márquez was floored by a Pacquiao left hook. At the end of the fight, the judges' scores were 115-112 for Pacquiao, 115-112 for Márquez, and 114-113 for Pacquiao.

In the post-fight press conference, Márquez’s camp called for an immediate rematch. In addition, Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy Promotions CEO, offered a 6 million dollar guarantee to Pacquiao for a rematch. However, Pacquiao ruled out a third clash with Márquez, stating: "I don't think so. This business is over." The reason that Pacquiao did not want a rematch was because he intended to move up to the lightweight division, in order to challenge David Díaz, the reigning WBC lightweight world champion at that time. Díaz won the majority decision over Ramón Montano that night as an undercard of the "Unfinished Business" fight.


Lethal Combination|WBC Lightweight Title

On June 28, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Pacquiao defeated David Díaz via ninth round knockout, to become the WBC lightweight world champion. With the victory, Pacquiao became the only Filipino and Asian boxer to win five world titles in five different weight classes, and also became the first Filipino fighter to ever win a world title at lightweight.[30] During the fight, which Pacquiao dominated, Díaz was cut badly on his right eye in the fourth round. After the bout, Díaz acknowledged Pacquiao's superior hand speed, stating: "It was his speed. It was all his speed. I could see the punches perfectly, but he was just too fast."

Bob Arum reported that the fight had made 12.5 million dollars (250,000 pay-per-view subscriptions at $49.95 each), earning Díaz his best payday of 850,000 dollars, whilst Pacquiao earned at least 3 million dollars. Official records revealed an attendance of 8,362 (out of a maximum capacity of 12,000).

Holding both the WBC super featherweight and lightweight titles following the win, Pacquiao decided to vacate his super featherweight title in July 2008.


The Dream Match|Against a Legend

On December 6, 2008, Pacquiao faced Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, in a fight called "The Dream Match". Pacquiao dominated the fight for eight rounds, forcing De La Hoya's corner to throw in the towel before the start of the ninth round, awarding Pacquiao the win via technical knockout. Pacquiao was ahead on all three judges' scorecards before the stoppage, with two judges scoring the fight at 80-71 and one scoring it at 79-72. Moreover, Pacquiao landed 224 out of 585 punches, whilst De La Hoya landed only 83 out of 402 punches. After the bout, trainer Freddie Roach stated: "We knew we had him after the first round. He had no legs, he was hesitant and he was shot." The fight would be De La Hoya's last, as he announced his retirement from boxing shortly after.

Presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, Inc., the bout was scheduled as a twelve round, non-title fight contested at the 147 pound welterweight limit. Although Pacquiao went into the fight widely recognized as the leading pound-for-pound boxer in the world, some boxing pundits had speculated that 147 pounds could be too far above his natural weight against the larger De La Hoya.

Pacquiao received 15 to 30 million dollars (share of the pay-per-view), plus a guaranteed amount.

Tickets reportedly sold out just hours after they went on sale. Moreover, the total gate revenue for the fight was said to be nearly 17 million dollars, making it the second largest gate revenue in boxing history.



Credits to Wikipedia