Manny Pacquiao: Pac-Man's Late Career Dominance Limits Legacy

Manny Pacquiao could have been one of the greatest fighters of all time, but he hit one tiny glitch on the way to history: he got started way too late in his career for his legacy to really matter.

Sure, there have been fantastic late bloomers across the sports world. In virtually every sport, there are players whose careers got off to slow starts, but who ultimately proved to be fantastic.

But for Pac-Man, that slow start will prove to be enough to doom his legacy to falling just short of greatness. 

Think about it: Pac-Man may have long been a big star in his native Philippines, but he didn’t get his first big shot at anything until 2004, when he first fought Juan Manuel Marquez.

At that point, he was already 26 years old—an awfully late age to start making your push as a headliner in boxing. On top of that, he’d promptly lose a bout to Erik Morales the following year before everything truly clicked into place on his run. 

The problem is less that Pacquiao’s run started so late (although that certainly doesn’t help his cause) and more that all of the elite fighters of his era are either too old to really pose a threat to him (with the exception of Floyd Mayweather), too young and unestablished to get a real chance or simply not good enough to challenge him. 

In other words, the timing of Pac-Man’s dominance couldn’t really be much worse. Had he begun even two years earlier, he would have hit the primes (or at least closer to the primes) of pugilists like Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, and yes, even a currently 38-year-old Juan Manuel Marquez would all have been squarely in the midst of their primes during Pacquiao’s run to the top. 

Think about it: if Manny had fought Shane Mosley or Oscar De La Hoya even two years before he had, wouldn’t those fights hold much more weight than they currently do? 

Unfortunately for the Philippine megastar, that severe lack of legit challengers is going to hinder him in the long run, and will ultimately limit just how high he’ll settle in the annals of boxing history.

Could he still be an elite fighter? Sure, especially with a win on Saturday and another one against Floyd Mayweather (should they ever step into the ring).

But think just how high Pac-Man’s stock would climb had he had a more traditional road to the top. We could be dealing in “Greatest of All Time” territory there—a position which would currently be outside Pac-Man’s reach.