10 Things We Learned from Manny Pacquiao's Destruction of Antonio Margarito

As many expected, Manny Pacquiao defeated Antonio Margarito last night to claim a title in an unprecedented eighth division.  That he did so was not a surprise, but the manner in which he claimed victory was nothing short of spectacular.  In short: Pacquiao laid a beating on the villainous Margarito for the ages. 

If there were any questions as to whether Pacquiao should be considered an all-time great or not, they should be answered.  That is not to give Margarito too much credit in the way of being a great opponent; however, it is to give Pacquiao the credit for absolutely destroying a much larger opponent who was known to be rugged and powerful.

With all of this in mind, there are certain things that were learned last night from Pacquiao and they affect the way this champion are viewed historically as well as future possibilities.  They are, in no particular order:

10. Pacquiao is a beast!  There is no other way to describe him.  He stood in the ring and mauled a man who once was promoted as the most feared fighter in the world.

9.  Speed kills.  This is true in all sports, it seems.  But in boxing when one punch can end a fight, the man who embodies speed is always at risk.  In this instance, however, speed equaled power and dominance.

8.  Pacquiao can take a punch from a larger, stronger fighter.  Margarito wasn’t in the ring pawing at Pacquiao.  He was in there to win and landed some really hard shots, especially in the sixth round when he landed a hellacious body shot.

7.  He can be effective against larger fighters.  The last two points and this one actually go hand-in-hand.  This performance will go a long way to determining future opponents.  Possibly Paul Williams or Sergio Martinez?

6.  Pacquiao’s boxing skills have grown even from five years ago.  His jab, as well as his defense, is much improved.  There were times when he completely blocked or slipped four-punch combinations.

5.  He is very conscious of his legacy.  If this wasn’t clear before, it should be now.  Why else would he continually move up in weight?  Why else would he continue to accept challenges from larger fighters?  He hasn’t been in soft for years now and along the way he has beaten the sport’s top fighters from four weight classes.

4.  He is a good sportsman.  This will also be noted in his legacy.  He absolutely carried the fight in the last two rounds.  There were several times when he asked the referee to stop the fight on behalf of Margarito and following the fight he was nothing but gracious and didn’t even do much speculating on the possibility that Margarito had taken an illegal substance.

3.  Pacquiao and his camp are not above gamesmanship.  The whole scene in the dressing rooms was very bizarre.  It seemed as though each camp was trying to one up the other with accusations and posturing.  This could provide some insight into past and future negotiations with Floyd Mayweather. 

2.  Pacquiao may be his own worst enemy when it comes time to getting a shot at Mayweather.  Floyd saw, or will surely see what the rest of the world saw:  Pacquiao is phenomenal.  If the fight were to happen, he would provide the stiffest challenge of Mayweather’s career hands down.

1.  Manny Pacquiao is an all-time great.  I know, I know.  This is fairly obvious and could possibly have been left off the list, but truthfully, who doesn’t think this now?

With his place in history seemingly secure, and a declaration that he will at least fight a few more times, let’s hope he continues his historic showing by getting that fight with Mayweather done, or even challenging for the middleweight championship of the world by fighting the winner of the fight between Williams and Martinez. 

No matter which, if any of these occur, history tells us that he’ll be up to the challenge.