Manny Pacquiao, Top Rank and the Gift of Supreme Match-Making in Boxing

The boxing world has been flooded with new stories this week about Manny Pacquiao’s march onto the previously unwritten pages in boxing history. The Pacman collected yet another title in an unprecedented eighth weight division with his win over Antonio Margarito despite significant disadvantages in height, strength and weight.

Margarito weighed in at the contracted limit of 150 lbs but Pacquiao surprised everyone when he weighed in well below the limit at 144.6 lbs. Typically if a fighter weighs in more than one full pound below the limit, they don’t put on much weight by the time the fight takes place.

The opposite is also true and Margarito weighed 165 lbs by the time they stepped in the ring giving him a 17 lb weight advantage against the naturally smaller man.

While I personally changed my prediction a few times before the fight took place, my buddy George asked me on the Wednesday before the fight, “If you had to bet on who you thought would win this weekend, who do you think would win?” For all the reasons that I had favored Margarito in the fight, I simply could not pick against Pacquiao when it came down to it.

For all of the credit that is due to Pacquiao for his meteoric rise to boxing superstardom and giving his trainer Freddie Roach the credit he is due as well, there is someone whom is almost never congratulated or thanked in post fight speeches, award dinners or even in boxing conversations: Bruce Trampler.

Reporters love to ask the obligatory question to a fighter after a win in a huge fight “Who would you like to fight next?” Most of the time we get one of two answers: They call out the fighter with the biggest name that will generate the biggest payday possible anywhere close to their weight division or they say “I’m just a fighter, that decision is up to my promoter. Whoever they want me to fight, I will fight.”

Reporters still ask the question even though most of the time, the fighter never gets the big fight they requested after their win unless it was already in the works before they won or, it’s an easy side step to never have to answer that question. Manny Pacquiao plays this role to a T, and why shouldn’t he?

Top Rank has done an excellent job with his career. Even when his contract expired and Pacquiao accepted a briefcase full of cash to sign with Golden Boy Promotions, Pacquiao side-stepped a contract and stayed with Top Rank which only added fuel to the fire between the two promoters and prompted more than one lawsuit that is still going on to this day.

How much different would Pacquiao’s career have been if he had signed with Golden Boy? The short answer: tremendously different. I can all but guarantee you that he wouldn’t have fought David Diaz, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito.

He likely may have fought: Juan Diaz (undefeated at the time), Joel Casamayor, Juan Manuel Marquez after their close and disputed decision, Shane Mosley, and most importantly…Floyd Mayweather Jr.

While Pacquiao has looked most impressive against the people he has fought (including Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton), his opposition isn’t exactly a who’s who of fighters that real fight fans really wanted to see him fight. They were talked into why the fight was a good idea but HBO’s 24/7 or various other media outlets.

People often weren’t excited about the matchups at first but they warmed up to the idea as time went on. Pacquiao, of course, went on to dominate all of the opponents he’s fought since losing to Erik Morales in 2005, with the exception of the close fight he had with Juan Manuel Marquez in their rematch.

Pacquiao has been named fighter of the year by the Boxing Writers Association of America multiple times and his trainer Freddie Roach has been named trainer of the year multiple times for his work with Pacquiao as well.

But like many fighters before him, Manny has been the product of Bruce Trampler’s superb matchmaking abilities. Every major promoter has a matchmaker but Trampler has helped prune careers of young boxers like De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto and Pacquiao into superstars.

There is a method of how to step a fighter up in his career that will give him both noteworthy wins and the most amount of acclaim with the least amount of risk. It’s been said, you never match your young undefeated prospect with a [South American] power puncher.

In the recent past, we’ve seen bright stars like Victor Ortiz and Amir Khan both knocked out by Marcos Maidana and Breidis Prescott respectively—both of whom were hardly known or rarely heard of in the U.S. Most hardcore fight fans couldn’t pick them out of a police lineup, but by the time the fight was over, none of us would forget who they were again.

You need your matchmaker to help you avoid those catastrophic knockout losses, as a promoter and as a fighter. Ortiz and Khan are still defined by those aforementioned losses and they’re battling to try and put them behind them. While Pacquiao faced the best fighters available when he fought at 130 lbs and below, that was a trend that ended quickly as his stock began to rise.

Pacquiao was tearing through the Featherweight division with his fights with Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez. Even though the disputed draw with Marquez wasn’t an official win, he put the world on notice with those two fights. The loss to Morales marked the beginning of Pacquiao’s ascent into superstardom and also marked the beginning of Trampler’s brilliance.

Pacquiao became the first fighter to knock Morales out and he did so twice. Morales was on a steep decline however as his win against Pacquiao would be his only win in his next four fights. Morales lost five of six fights before retiring for two years. Pacquiao also fought Hector Velasquez and Oscar Larios in between his fights with Morales.

Larios has been a fighter that has had a respectable career but he was coming off of a knockout loss to Israel Vasquez at 122 lbs before moving up two divisions to fight Pacquiao at 130 lbs, a fight Pacquiao won by decision.

Pac then fought Barrera again at 130 lbs, however Barrera was also coming off of a loss to Juan Manuel Marquez and many believed that Barrera was nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career.

Pac then fought Marquez in a rematch that was long overdue. Marquez and hardcore fight fans begged for this fight and it didn’t disappoint. He beat Marquez by one point on one judge’s scorecard in a split decision. They’d shared two fights together they’d only been decided officially by one total point.

This would be the last time that Pacquiao faced a fighter with real boxing ability. Marquez laid down the blueprint on how to beat Pacquiao and many believed that he would never face a boxer of his caliber again and they may be right.

Pacquiao then moved up to 135 lbs and fought David Diaz who was well overmatched by Pacquiao’s speed. He moved up to 147 lbs and fought De La Hoya, whom hadn’t fought at the Welterweight limit since 2001 and had also lost three of his previous six fights as it was.

He moved down to 140 lbs and fought Ricky Hatton, who had lost his first fight in a knockout loss to Mayweather, then was nearly knocked out again by Juan Lazcano, then fought the feather fisted Paulie Malignaggi before fighting Pacquiao. His best days were clearly behind him.

Pacquiao then has only fought fighters promoted by Top Rank: Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito. Clottey had just lost to Cotto and Cotto looked like he’d clearly lost a step after the brutal beating he’d suffered at the hands of Margarito. Manny then tested Cotto and beat him as badly as Margarito had. In his most recent fight, Manny fought Margarito and destroyed him over 12 rounds.

Again, we were sold on the venue of Dallas Cowboys Stadium for two of the fights and were led to believe that Cotto was the monster puncher that he used to be as well. All of the fighters since facing Marquez have been shop worn fighters who had a big name or were willing to fight Manny for less money on a bigger stage.

We should’ve had better fights with Marquez, Mosley, Mayweather and maybe even Berto. We’ve been cheated as fight fans and sold by the media that this may be the best fighter ever. While Pacquiao has all the tools and grit to possibly be that man, his promotional company and the brilliant matchmaking by Bruce Trampler has allowed Pacquiao to side step the biggest challenges.

Top Rank and Team Pacquiao have enjoyed all of the success they can handle and Pacquiao has had an amazing career. When the sun sets on this journey that is Pacquiao’s career, we might look back wishing that he’d tested himself against the best fighters that were available.

However, you can’t blame Bruce Trampler. He’s been the best tour guide a fighter could hope for and he’s kept his fighter out of harm’s way and onto the unwritten pages of history, a brilliant performance indeed.