MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Why Manny Pacquiao's Legacy Will NEVER Be Equaled

Episode Date: September 30, 2021

Brian Campbell reacts to the retirement of eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao at age 42 and counts down five reasons why there will never be another boxer quite like the Filipino icon given the unique elements of his legacy. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

he came he saw and so many times he conquered now at the age of 42 boxing icon Manny Pacquiao has called it a career as the sports only eight division champion my name is Brian Campbell you're looking at a morning combat extra edition here just looking to sort of put into words the impact and the legacy that the 42 year old Filipino legend has had on this sport. As he puts the boxing gloves aside, following Tuesday night's impromptu press conference on his Facebook page, announcing that he will fight no more as Manny Pacquiao looks to run for the presidency of the Philippines in 2022.

My name is Brian Campbell. As I mentioned, one half of Morning Combat alongside Luke Thomas every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11 a.m. Eastern here on YouTube on the MK channel. Giving you all the hot takes in boxing, MMA, and beyond to check that out. But right now, I really want to focus on such a cultural icon and crossover legend in Pacquiao that the emotions kind of hit hard here. I didn't expect him to fight again after losing somewhat soundly there in a close, but convincing decision loss to your Dennis Ugas in August on pay-per-view. Ugas defended the WBA welterweight title, but replacing late the injured Errol Spence Jr., which was yet another time Manny Pacquiao reaching up and daring to be great. Pacquiao looked a little sluggish. He

looked a little old. He threatened retirement after that fight. Now it seems he's going through with it. Does it mean he'll never fight again? I'm sorry. I can't believe that. Fighters obviously retire so often and Pacquiao loves this game so much that if you imagine a scenario, let's say, where he doesn't win the presidency of the Philippines, you're going to see him back. That just is what it is. But let's take him at his word for right now. What does he leave behind? I mean, certainly one of the greatest surefire Hall of Fame careers we've ever seen, whether you have him, you know, the 1B to the 1A of Floyd Mayweather as the face of this modern boxing era. Pacquiao's legacy is so unique to itself, even separate from Mayweather,

that, you know, you wanted to come on here and sort of add an accompaniment to a piece I wrote on CBSSports.com this week on the boxing page, looking at sort of five reasons here why Manny Pacquiao's legacy is so unique to himself and why really, why we'll never see another one exactly like him specifically in this in this biz boxing businessman era that we see where fighters barely fight twice a year sometimes take on easier opponents you had an old school throwback unlikely crossover global superstar pay-per-view hero who came on there and put one slugfest after

another in his prime and constantly moved up and weighed and dared to be great. There's only one Manny Pacquiao. And I want to sort of open like this. It's not that I didn't know he was going to go, but when it's, when it's, when you have closure, when it's in your face, it's real. I never lost on what we had in him, even for most of us you know pacquiao's been on top for like two full decades right he's been a pay-per-view star for about 15 years for some of us not me specifically but a lot of boxing fans it's like they don't know boxing without pacquiao on top so it's a sobering thing to see him gone now when you know everyone thought the Mayweather fight in 2015 was going to be the mountaintop for both. And they'd sort of both linger on and fall off after that.

Mayweather, to a large degree, has, even though he stayed busy lately with attraction fights. But Pacquiao never went anywhere. Yeah, he juggled being a full-time senator and a full-time fighter, and there were breaks. But he stayed an active fighter. But yet now seeing him gone, it does make you sort of start to put into context did we have right here the closest thing we've ever had to a to a muhammad ali of our era and like you know lightning will strike you if you say those type of sacrilege words because there's no one like muhammad ali that's why ken burns can do a pbc documentary and it's like the 100th documentary on ali yet People are kicking down the door to see it. Nobody had that impact. He was a hero. He's a villain. He was humanitarian. He was everything. Pacquiao might come the closest. casuals, the non-sports fans, the grandmothers who watched him sing, you know, off off tone karaoke.

Jimmy Kimmel. And we're like, man, this this this guy's adorable. And he had that at his core. You know what made Pacquiao great? Well, the fighting style and the hunger. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. But the dichotomy of that mixed with such a, just a humble regular guy who, you know, you live the, you live the fast life for a while, but once he buckered down, it became a, a family man, a, a, a God fearing man. And, and, you know, and a giving man, you know, I mean, it was some of the, look, he has controversial politics. Some of the charity people argue is for show, but you know,

the Manny I've gotten to know over the years through interviewing him, this is real and genuine as, as it gets. I mean, he's a, he's a great dude. He's an asset to the sport. He's like the, you know, the poster person you would want to represent something. And for so many people who only come to boxing once or twice a year for the big events, Pacquiao was that key. And he was, you know, if you, again, if he wasn't the greatest fighter of this era and, you know, to be fair, he fought Floyd Mayweather finally after a five and a half year courtship and, you know, they were one and two pound for pound.

Were they older? Yeah, they were 38 and 36. It wasn't a prime example of where they were, but terms were even and Floyd won the fight. So he's probably your face of the division. And I, and I do rate him just that much higher historically because of that Manny Pacquiao? No. Will we ever see in history somebody win titles in eight divisions? Even in this absolutely watered-down era,

where, let's be honest, Adrian Broner, good fighter, marketable, flashy fighter, never great. He's a four-division champion. Why? Because we've got so many titles in every weight class that you end up in these fights for the vacant title, and you're suddenly, oh, I was a champion at that weight class. Well, or yeah. Um, it's not that Pacquiao didn't have at least one scenario where he picked up a belt and wasn't the true champion of the division, but for the most part, he was the

champion and would clean out the divisions he was in. And he went titles in eight divisions, which no one's ever done. that that alone is like it's sort of like a band that you know may had some longevity and had great hits but that one album that they had that they became famous from was so ridiculously perfect and great that they could never need or want or have another hit or do anything and that one thing right you know it's like if you star as luke skywalker in the star wars show like i don't know if mark hamill's ever been in another movie. It doesn't matter.

They set, you know, that's his legacy. For like Pacquiao could have been that with the eight division champion thing. Only he did that in 2011, right? Like he went on to fight a full decade, went on to author this absurd twilight to his career. It's, there's so many layers. The more you really think about it to what we had here uh

to a guy that was like he was like a guarantee on pay-per-view for the most part now did he did he did he turn more into a boxer for a short period after the the vicious knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez and their fourth fight in 2012 yes he did the Brandon Rios fight you know a couple of those fights you see more Pacquiao the boxer but but for the most part, he came after you. And that's an old school way of operating for a guy who was always the smaller guy for the most part would always, you know, rise up and wait, defy the odds. And he gave you an honest night at the office and in a pay-per-view era where you'd kind of pay for the promotion, right? Especially in the era of like 24 seven and all access documentaries, sometimes Mayweather would lure you in to be paying for the promotion.

And then, you know, you'd watch him for 12 rounds, just be a master out there, but to casuals, they're not always entertained by that. Pacquiao was that rare brand consistent through the years. It doesn't matter who he's facing, you know, he's going to try to face the best. And for the most part, he's going to entertain you. Now let's look at five reasons here. Why beyond the eight division titles that Pacquiao was so different.

And we may never see someone again, like him number five, you know, he never stopped fighting like that poor kid on the side of the road and a developing nation. And it's like, yeah, there's a little hagiography demigod treatment of Pacquiao's backstory. Maybe boxing is the only sport that can, you know, produce a Paul Bunyan tale like this. But, you know, for the most part from the research, I'll tell you, it's true. He his parents divorced when he was young. His mom was a single mom with six kids. They barely had a roof over their heads. Pacquiao essentially

drops out of high school to sell cigarettes and donuts on the side of the road. Times got so bad, he moved to the capital city of Manila, kind of lived in the streets, took odd construction jobs to send money back home. And then he stumbles into a boxing gym and the rest is history. He turns pro at age 16 at 106 pounds. And again, who would have ever thought he's fighting to kind of put food on the table. But number five, the reason why he never stopped fighting like that. You know, like I don't even want to do the Marvin Hagler thing again of like hard to do road work and silk sheets, that whole line. But it's true. It's hard to foster that same level of determination when you finally made it, because a lot of the fuel for fighters that's guiding them to potentially be great is the want for comfort and fame and, you know, attribution for what they're doing.

And once you get that, you know, it's sort of like, well, I kind of like being a celebrity here, kind of like being rich, bitch. You know what I mean? And it's not, you know, it's not sometimes rock music is the same way. It's like, Pearl Jam had a great career. It's still torn. They're still awesome live, still make good albums. Never made one like 10 before with that type of anger and angst and fuel. Pacquiao had that fuel every single fight, more or less, even again, as the older, smaller fighter, he's the one coming forward engaging in battle and that type of fighting spirit it's the edge that he had in his absolute prime where you're

just like i don't know much about this guy but i gotta watch him this is so much fun and it's obviously what helped him outlast other guys in really close fights and i think even more you know it's what got him through some really tough moments. It was this, like, I'm not going back to that street corner. I don't care. You know, I know there's been reports through the years that he's had financial issues and he keeps a ridiculously large entourage and he gives away so much of his money and he flies hundreds of people to his fights. And, you know, maybe there are times that he's fighting for money or,

or some people say he entered politics just for the built-in finance finance i don't know i don't know his real motivation there i'm not trying to paint him as a saint but he kept fighting like that kid who's like if i don't make it here through this you know i i don't know i don't know what i'm gonna be doing tomorrow and you know i love the old stories like his his dad they were so hungry his dad ate his dog and then man he ran away and left i don't know if that's all real that That could be some Filipino magic there. But the Filipino magic you saw inside the ring was who Manny is. And not only did he not forget that kid, you know, he gave back a lot and he's still giving back today. And that's where you get those sort of Ali-like comparisons.

There is a generation of fans who got into the game, as I mentioned, because of him. And, you know, think of the Filipino nation. Think of a country that has had so many ups and downs and is still kind of a quasi third world country when you look at the financials and the numbers there. And how many people look at him as an absolute hero, rightfully so, who just came from nothing and look where he is today. And I vowed to do that myself. OK, I vowed to always be that guy from the factory town, you know, to have that hunger and that passion. He never lost it. And I think it's that love for the game that has kept him in it and kept him going, you know the odds makers telling him no he made it look easy at times and he did it by daring to be great by taking on challenges that we didn't think he should by

you know moving up to welterweight to face oscar de la joya in 2008 that type of stuff but he just consistently did that now how was he able to pull that off because he had an absurd motor and passion and hunger and drive. Like I just talked about that fighting hunger. But when you really look at it and you talk about there'll never be another many packet. And I broke down before about the eight division champion. You're just, you're just never going to see that again.

Okay. And I'm going to see somebody turn pro at 106 pounds and win a world title at 154 pounds. You know, maybe you'll see somebody fluctuate weight that wildly a few times here and there, but have that same level of success. No. So, you know, when Pacquiao was, was fighting the, that hall of fame trio there, the, the Juan Manuel Marquez, the Marco Antonio Barrera, the Eric Morales, and just making great fights at one 22, one 26. And, you know, he's even

suddenly became a pay-per-view brand off of that. And he's just like future star, nobody, nobody in 2004 or fives, nobody would have believed that. Could he go up to lightweight? Even everybody went up to one 35 to face David Diaz. It's like, I don't know if he can handle that power. I mean, he went all the way up, you know, he smashed Ricky Hatton at one 40. He stopped De La Hoya and Hatton at welterweight. You know know he took the title at a catch weight from margarito at 154 pounds he did it in a way that yeah yeah he had to take punishment people don't talk about this enough go

go re-watch the miguel codofloy 12th round tkl for manny the first four rounds were the the haggler herns of welterweight you're like we see whoa whoa whoa haggler herns seriously go back and re-watch the first four rounds of pacquiao koto pacquiao had to walk through the wood chipper okay walk through hell to to overcome what koto over koto stubbornness and take control of that fight and rounds five through twelve were one-sided pacquiao just picked him apart wore wore him down, dominated, stopped him. One through four. There's a reason why when Pacquiao, after the fight,

remember he would always do those live karaoke parties at the hotel and he'd sing and he'd put on a concert, you know, like Pacquiao was the only one that didn't realize he couldn't sing. It's still hilarious to this day. But he had that giant bandage over his ear. Dude, he went through hell. His eardrum was ringing. I think he had the surgery on i mean

he got beat up he says the antonio margarito fight the one-sided junior middleweight title fight from 2011 in which he destroyed margarito's eye right just 12 rounds hitting him in the same spot with those rocket left hands pacquiao quietly in interviews will tell you he took more punishment in that fight against a giant man than in any other but you didn't notice it part of him moving up in weight with such ease and doing the impossible was he took on damage and accrued it endured it and didn't show the you know i mean when have you seen him dropped you know offhand i'm like okay he was definitely dropped in the fourth fight with marquez twice including the knockout And that's why that fight is so batshit awesome.

And he also dropped Marquez. And it's the great war between two old legends. I know he was stopped twice in the Philippines or in Asia before he made the move officially in 2001 to the US. But you don't see this guy get knocked down, even when he's like substantially the smaller fighter. So the ease in which he moved up and wait and did these impossible things again it's not like i'm i'm naive to the the potential

performance enhancing drug crossover of every athlete during this run there's believe me okay but even within the grounds of where he operated in this sport and against his contemporaries he was like a superhero. There's nobody. I mean, when he beat Cotto in 2011, he was getting Henry Armstrong comparisons. Like people don't understand how boxing works. Boxing, you age in reverse. Boxing is the only sport where the guys way back then are way better than the guys today for the most part,

except for like the athlete in size issue where like, you know, now you've got a six foot nine Tyson Fury with long and quick hands and quick feet I'm that guy's fighting in any era and he's going to be a factor believe it okay but the difference is because there's no gyms on every boxing corner because boxing's not a top three sport a sport of kings like it was in the 40s and 50s and 60s and if you grew up watching Ali and that carried through to the 80s and a little bit of the 90s where you know you grew up wanting to be a boxer now it's still a a sport that's looked at as a way out and you know in urban and hardship communities um ages in reverse when Henry Armstrong was fighting there were eight weight classes he was the undisputed champion simultaneously at

three of them when pacquiao moved up the welterweight and beat those guys people like this is like there's some henry armstrong bullshit you don't see those comparisons today you don't see as great as mayweather is right and it's going to go down in the top 10 or 15 or 20 depending on where you stand all time you don't see people going i know i know it's a it's a cultural thing to say maybe without really thinking about it you hear a lot of pro athletes say well floyd mayweather is the best of all time well you know he had the marketing of the best ever and he would say he was the best but people that really know say he's one of the best all time he's not in the sugar ray robinson you don't see

floyd mayweather getting compared to sugar ray robinson you saw manny pacquiao getting compared to henry armstrong i mean that's wild um that's because he just did impossible things and made it look easy and and the Pacquiao that we know now we're so used to seeing him around on pay-per-view whatever if you didn't live it you forgot what it was like like when he was gonna fight De La Hoya he was gonna get knocked out I know De La Hoya was 36 but he was like three weight classes bigger. I thought Miguel Cotto was going to body him. I thought even Ricky Hatton might pop him.

Each step of that ladder, there was a giddiness after each fight. I specifically remember when he knocked out Miguel Cotto and Larry Merchant looked in the microphone on HBO and said, we knew Manny Pacquiao was great. He's better than we thought. It was like, I don't know what the limit is on what this man can do. And that's freaking scary. And that's the reason why the drum beat started for him to fight Floyd Mayweather and why, in hindsight, if we only could have seen that fight in 2011 or 2012

before Pacquiao had the back-to-back defeats, if we only could have seen that fight in 2011 or 2012 before, you know, Pacquiao had the back-to-back defeats, um, could have been, it could have been something that could have been something. So got it. They're still number one and two pound for pound. The testament to Pacquiao's ability to re, you know, reimagine himself, but, uh, wow. That's how special that run was. Number three. I don't think there's ever been a better loser than manny pacquiao and while that looks like an insult and a jab it's anything but

it's a two-fold way to look at it one he had the grace and humility under fire especially in times in which like the timothy bradley fight the first one from 2012 he got robbed he got out brian kenney is the only guy who thinks that tim bradley won that. I wonder at night if Tim Bradley sits down, he won't say a public, but I wonder if he goes, yeah, we got one over on him. Upon rewatching that really closely, you know, you can get four. I don't even want to say five. You get four rounds to Tim Bradley. He, I mean, he, despite having legitimate injuries,

he just kept coming and Pacquiao was slowing down. That was that first period where Pacquiao you're like, oh, you know, Pacquiao's still great. But I don't know if he could fight three minutes every round at that same hellacious pace that he was doing against De La Hoya, Hatton, Cotto, or against Morales and Barrera before that. Like, let's not forget, maybe Pacquiao would throw like eight or nine punch combinations, take a step out and dart right back in. He was slowing down just a bit yet, even in that fight, which is considered the biggest robbery of the modern era in terms of like a pay-per-view event and the Jeff Horn fight, which I know I'm a truther in saying that

the fight might've been a draw or even, you know, more or less a lot of people also saw Paki as being robbed there. Never complained. He never cried foul. He gave respect to the judges, to his opponent. And you can say, okay, BC, that's cool. He's a, you know, he's a sportsman. Well, who cares? We're in the Conor McGregor Floyd trash talk era. We are, but you know, that builds up not just goodwill or a good representation of the sport. And, and, but that's like, it helps you bounce back. You realize, many realize he could only control what goes on in the 12 rounds. If you can't knock out a guy and that was his goal, he can just do the best he can. And that's

what it is. And I think that's a healthy way of looking at it. His grace under those levels of fire was extraordinary. Just like it was after he lost to Ugas. He said, you know, I thought I might've done enough, but the better man won. Congratulations to him. The only time I had to issue, to be honest with Manny in this category was after he lost to Floyd when he had, which everyone thought was a clear eight rounds to four, which he said, I thought I won. I'm not mad at him for thinking that he won, but I thought it was clear shoulder injury or not. The Pacquiao didn't go for it. And the biggest fight of his career, because he had some fears that Floyd was going to catch him. Maybe it's lingering from the Marcus fight.

So I'm not holding this loss against him, but I didn't love his reaction to be fair. I didn't, especially reaction to be fair. I didn't, especially the, my shoulder was the problem. Let's do a rematch. That was a little clear. That was a little transparent.

Aside from that though, that is one half of the being a good loser equation. The other half is we've seen him stop three times and we haven't, and hasn't missed a beat. So two of these are early in his career. I mentioned when he's fighting for world titles in Asia, one of those times he was clearly weight drained and he got stopped because of that. Another time, I think he just got knocked out. You know, he bounced back from that and became a world champion.

And then obviously that led to that, the American invasion. We didn't know Manny Pacquiao was until 2001. He had just recently come to the States. He walked into Freddie Roach's gym on the streets of LA at wild card. And he suddenly got this new trainer and he fills in on HBO last minute to face Leo Lilo led Waba, who just recently passed away RIP for a 122 pound title, the IBF and Pacquiao just blows him the frick away.

And it's like, from there on, he's this attraction on HBObo that led into the barrera fight which was his first breakthrough win and the the trilogy with morales and you know beginning the the four fight run with with marquez which is the greatest rivalry that boxing has seen in the past 20 30 years um that's all great but when he got knocked out by, by Marquez in 2012, and was faced down on the canvas for 55 full seconds in which everyone from me at home going like this to Bob Arum, his promoter, to his wife, Jinky. I mean, they thought he would, they, they, you know, I've talked to people that were there after that kid, we thought he was dead.

And, you know, they got the smelling salts and he, and he woke back up and we thought, okay, thank God he's alive. Because that was one of the most vicious shots. Worst timing ever. You know, we saw Pacquiao ducking at the worst time. They're both just kind of brawling because it turned into this incredible sort of, you know, anger fueled spite fest fight. And Pacquiao gets just knocked out. And, you know, was Marquez on the stuff? I don't know. You tell me um and he knocked his lights out cold and you thought okay i'm glad he's okay but he'll never be the same at worst he'll be you know best he'll be gun shy at

worst he'll be gotta be washed from that and you take into account forget the three knockout losses i told you about the koto and margarito fights he had to walk through hell and winning one-sided fights but he had to take on damage. He has been in wars. The Jeff Horn fight was a war. The Keith Thurman fight, where there was a lot of great exchanges later in his career, but forget all of those fights from 2000 to 2010, or to 2008, before he moved up to welterweight.

All those fights at 122, 126, 130. They're wars. And I don't know how it didn't affect him. So the, you want to talk about who's a great loser. You can be a sportsman, man. He was in defeat,

but he's the best loser ever because he bounced back from that, that, that KO loss that usually chaos careers. And it didn't seem changed by it, except for a couple of fights in the beginning. He was a little too little cautious and boxing heavy, but you know, he got back into the, into the Mayweather fight, which we thought was done by that point.

And he was the number two pound for pound rank guy and a defending welterweight champion. And then of course he has that third period of his career, that twilight where it's like, how is he doing it at this age? Shouldn't he be punch drunk? Shouldn't he be slow? No, he's none of those. This is a, this is an alien. Okay. And the fact that he rebounded from losses so easily and was like,

almost like, Oh, big deal. This is like, he treated boxing. Like, you know, he loves basketball. We all know he loves basketball. He owns a team in the Filipino league. He made himself a player coach at one point or whatever which is a big publicity stunt he plays basketball like every single day he also trains boxing every single day because he loves it but he looks at it under that regard like oh your neighbor joe he's a plumber guy runs road races all the time it's his passion in life he's going to be out there in any weather running because he loves it pacquiao treated professional boxing like that. Like, Oh man, I lost. Okay, cool. I got a game

next week. Right. We got another one. Right. We'll, we'll be back. You don't see that. You don't see that. Number two, what, what made Pacquiao different? His longevity is absurd. Okay. 26 years. Okay. He turned pro at 16. Like a lot of Mexican fighters who forego an amateur career. Canelo Alvarez turned pro at like 15, right? He had like, he had as many fights as Floyd did when they fought and Floyd was 36 and Canelo was 23, right? So he's got 72 pro fights. And yet two years, two years ago, 24 years into his 26 year career, he goes out and in at age 40,

nearly becomes the fighter of the year. Again, reclaims a welterweight title, puts himself back in the top 10 pound for pound knocks out Matisse, gets a decision, went on pay-per-view against Adrian Broner and edges Keith Thurman. And like an instant classic of a great championship welterweight championship bout, which he knocks unbeaten champion Thurman

down and sort of out punches him. Do that in a 12 year window at age 40. His longevity is absurd and it's not the years or the amount of fights as much as it is the combination of damage mixed with the fact that he never lost his speed and explosiveness. When you're the smaller man fighting in a larger division and your speed starts to go as it does to everyone, you're done. Like we think of Pacquiao as a puncher because he's, you know, he one punched Ricky Hatton and he, you know, he's got spectacular knockdowns of Miguel Cotto.

But as we all know know he had that long almost eight-year stretch without a knockout at Walter Waite until he finally stopped washed Matisse where we're like you know 147 is too high he's not a puncher in this weight class so he's not really the knockout puncher at the higher weights that we think he is it's just that he's so fast that if you're you know if you're a Ricky hat and you're a bit chinny, you can catch it with one shot. You're gone. Or, or sometimes it's the accumulation of punches over so many rounds, like against Dale Ahoy or Dale is like, all right, I can't do this.

I'm I'm done. Not for somebody who's not a knockout puncher for the most part. And you're relying on footworks and speed and many packers. Boxing IQ is very underrated him and Freddie Roach. I mean, if you look at the early days, look at Pacquiao's breakthrough fight, the first win over Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio, 2002 ish, maybe 2003. He's just like fake jab fit, you know, meaningless jab, meaningless jab left cross. And that's all it was for early Manny. But yet people couldn't keep up with that because the speed and the ferocity

was insane. I know it became a big joke heading into, I believe it was the second Marquez fight where he developed Manila ice, which is a fun way of saying Manny Pacquiao developed a right hook. He didn't use his right hand for anything. It was just all left cross. And then Freddie Roach, and then they helped him develop this right hook. Once became a two-fisted puncher and they were i mean look at the knockdown of marquez in their second fight which i think is the best uh it's not the best of the four because the fourth one is just cinema but the second one is when they were both at their absolute apex the knockdown that pacquiao has early of marquez is the craziest sneaky cross cross angled punch that just fits in this tiny strike zone on Marcus's chin and just shows you who many became.

So, okay. Having that insane IQ is great, but he's 40 and even 42 years old against Ugas this year. And he's relying on speed. That's that's stupid longevity. You don't see that because you're not supposed to see that. Even if somebody did, and we don't know, take things. Everyone took things in baseball in the late 90s, early 2000s. Yeah, Barry Bonds took things and did things that were like, what? 73 home runs, like 100 and something intentional walks,

hitting 370 with a ridiculous on-base percentage. What 73 home runs, you know, like a hundred and something intentional walks, uh, hitting three 70 with like a ridiculous on base percentage. It's like, he was so great that taken the stuff, put him at like a next astrologic next level. Even if you're telling me that that's the case in this situation, it's still insane. You're not going to find me another guy guy who's gonna fight for 26 straight years without too long of a break especially in his prime and he's not gonna get injured he's gonna recover from knockouts he's gonna win titles in so many different weight classes and be the same style

and same fighter and carry his speed and power up with him for the most part except for carrying the power to welterweight um you're not gonna find it but number one why will there never be a Manny Pacquiao? Why is this man so unique above all that and the humanitarian work and the celebrity? Here's the coolest stat. It's not a stat. It's basically a realization. He's not just, he didn't just have a Hall of Fame career.

He had three Hall of Fame careers in one that are kind of separate from each other. It's like when we look at Muhammad Ali, because he had the break in his prime of three plus years when he was, you know, sitting out to protest the war in Vietnam. We look at that as prime Muhammad Ali, the guy that beat Sonny Liston twice and Floyd Patterson twice. And, you know, against Cleveland Williams in 1965 or whatever,

that's the peak. You'll never see a better Ali. And then it was older slowed down compromised ali who had a a level of chin and heart and just determination that willed him to the victories in the rumble in the jungle and the thrill in manila that's still two chapters of the same man right it's kind of like george foreman having two chapters because he had that long break in the middle it's rare when you get somebody who has distinctly different careers. It's rare that somebody will change their style or will move up in weight so dramatically that like, oh, wow, he was a puncher at this weight class,

but he's a boxer. No, you don't have that. Pacquiao's got three freaking eras. If he would have retired somehow in his late twenties after fighting Marquez, Morales and Barrera, a combination of eight times, including victories over some very good names around that, you know, the Oscar Larios is the, you know, he foodie Faustine fight, uh, Emmanuel Lucero. He fought, uh, we, we, Lola Waba as I talked. Agapito Sanchez.

I mean, he fought names that are known. Hector Velasquez, yes. It's a Hall of Fame run right there. Okay? You retire as a, basically a, you know, he had already won world titles at like 108 and 112. And then he moves up to 122,6 it's all of him career right there okay but no he does what we talked about before moves up to well 140 and welterweight beats de la jolla hatton and cotto beats claudie wins the title in another weight class against margarito so

suddenly man he's like 32 33 in 2011 and he's boxing's only eight division champion and that second period of his career which includes the the second and third uh Marquez fights which he won both of them even though they were both controversial that middle period is where he was the most famous where he was the most explosive where it was just like I don't think he can do this but I'm going to watch it he probably will and that period kind of ran through the knockout loss to Marquez and maybe it ends right there. But that third trimester of Manny's career, whether you consider only the third part being after the Floyd Mayweather fight

or what led up to it, the second fight against Timothy Bradley in which he won, which was a great performance, and in the comeback he made you know beating being brandon rios being chris algeri to set up the the mayweather fight okay he loses the mayweather fight we thought he would fade away that twilight run to have wins over tim bradley in their trilogy jesse vargas a clear you know clear pay-per-view win stops Matisse, Adrian Broner, Keith Thurman. Like that's kind of, you know, you package that together. Who has a better welterweight run during that stretch?

Maybe with the exception of Errol Spence Jr. Insane. There'll never be another one. Manny Pacquiao, one of one. Do I think he'll fight again? Yeah, I do. I do. I do. But for now, at page 42, we bid you adieu, Manny. Thank you for everything.

For being, you know, this spark. I said it in print. Boxing hasn't been easy to follow for the last 20 years. Too many pay-per-views, too many world titles. Boxing was off of regular TV for a lot of that. There's corruption, there's bullshit. But there was Manny Pacquiao. And for so many people, the real fans.

Oh, God, Pacquiao's going to be fighting Barrera in a month. I got to be there. Oh, he's fighting Morales? Oh, no, he's fighting. It was that. He was the guy. Still the man. Manny Pacquiao's out.

So is your boy, BC. Like and subscribe to what we do here on Morning Combat. Do a lot of MMA. We do some boxing sometime too. But I think you're going to like the way it looks on you. I guarantee that. You want any more words? How about two of them?

We out. Thank you.