Manny Pacquaio: Last Night Claimed To Be The Greatest Boxer Of All Time!

Last night on '60 minutes' the interview starts by highlighting Manny Pacquaio’s smile and how he seems very comfortable entering the ring. Shortly after that Bob Arum states that Manny Pacquaio is the best boxer he has ever seen. The comparison included Muhammad Ali the heavily disputed greatest boxer of all time.  Although it may appear as promotional hype, Arum gave a explanation to support his statement, “Ali only had power in one hand Manny has power in both hands.”

I thought it was rather interesting to see the influence that Pacquaio has on his home country in the Philippines. Every time he fights there are at least10 million countrymen somewhere watching or listening to his fights. It was later concluded that everyone in the country watches his fight nights. He is such intriguing figure in the Philippines the crime rate is the lowest; sometimes nonexistent during his fights. 

Manny started his career at the age of sixteen only weighing 98 pounds and admittedly having to load his pockets to qualify to fight. After earning money from a prize fight in the Philippines he flew to Hollywood and that’s where he met Freddie Roach his long time trainer. Freddie Roach said after one round of working Manny out he seen something special about him. Although he has trained 20 different world champions including Mike Tyson and Oscar De La Hoya, he says Manny's punches were the most explosive he had ever seen.

Surprisingly Floyd Mayweather Jr. was never mentioned the entire interview, not a word on the drug testing controversy.  There was not one question about a potential fight between the two champions. The interview was more a sales ad for Manny Pacquaio. I think I may have underestimated Bob Arum’s influence because this discussion was nothing more than a fight promotion. Maybe even a favor for Manny’s endorsement of the Senator Harry Reid. Whatever the reason he received such a favorable interview, I think it was a success in collecting more interest for this weekends super fight.

Freddie Roach did show some vulnerability expressing his concerns about Manny’s training focus.  Roach claims he sometimes loses sleep because he is worried about Manny's focus. I’m not sure when this interview was taped because Roach recently stated in another interview that Manny is back on track. No matter if “Team Pacquaio” is on schedule with their fight preparations, last night they were successful in building interest in the man called Pac-Man.

I also realized Manny may not be a humble as perceived. When asked who was the greatest boxer of all time he paused, then asked “including me”, and said “of course It’s me”.  It was kind of refreshing to see a real response from the guy that almost never feeds controversy. It will be interesting to see how the self proclamation will be received by the boxing community. I don't see it as a big deal if he doesn't believe it no one else will.