Pacquiao vs. Marquez 3: With the Win, Where Does Manny Rank Among Greatest?

Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO) is already one of the greatest of not this time, but of all time. The only questionable factor is how great? Is he top 100? Top 50? Top 40? Top 10?

The question still remains as to whether he is even the best fighter of this era, as fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1, 39 KO) and Floyd Mayweather (42-0, 26 KO) put that claim to the heaviest test.

Answering where Pacquiao will rank comes down recently to one factor: the Marquez trilogy.

Pacquiao recently defeated Marquez by majority decision in the third and supposedly final match in their trilogy.

The fight was seen by many to be a draw, with some even saying Marquez got the victory off effective counter-punching and making Pacquiao miss his punches more than usual.

How other greats from other eras performed against controversy in their trilogies and series of fights will determine how to rank Pacquiao based on the controversial trilogy with Marquez.

One great in particular had many controversial victories, yet is ranked very highly above his peers and he just so happens to have been a former welterweight.

His name is Sugar Ray Leonard and comparing Pacquiao to Ol' Leonard might bring a conclusion as to how to properly re-evaluate Pacquiao's all-time ranking among boxing's greatest.

Sugar Ray Leonard

Sugar Ray Leonard (36-3-1, 25 KO), often considered the king of 1980's boxing, is also a king of controversy.

Leonard's status as one of the greatest of all time is widely accepted for not just his dominance of the fighters at welterweight and a few divisions north, but more specifically for his defeats of three men.

Those three are Thomas Hearns(61-5-1, 48 KO), Roberto Duran (104-16, 70 KO) and Marvin Hagler (62-3-2, 52 KO). Leonard has also had controversies with wins over all three.

Leonard-Duran II

Sugar Ray Leonard at age 25 was undefeated and welterweight world champion in 1980 until he met Roberto Duran.

A common criticism of Leonard at the time was that he was too fleet-footed. He was more of a runner and dancer in the ring, avoiding punches and not willing to trade.

Against Duran, who was only a few fights removed from his days fighting in the lightweight division, Leonard decided to bring the fight to Duran.

Leonard played right into Duran's hands and was nearly knocked out for it. He survived a tough and rugged fight to lose by a unanimous decision.

Leonard decided to offer Duran a lucrative rematch five months later, knowing Duran would gain 40-50 pounds between fights. Since Leonard was a big money-printing attraction at the time in boxing, Duran accepted.

Thinking he would go in the ring and collect a paycheck by collecting Leonard's head, Duran was not prepared for what was to come. Leonard returned to his dancing ways in most impressive fashion.

He made Duran quit in Round 8 after being unable to land anything meaningful against Leonard as the dancing one mocked him and goofed around as if Duran were an amateur.

The win was controversial, for some felt Leonard was unsportsmanlike for performing the clowning maneuvers in Round 7 that would result in Duran quitting a round later.

Others say the win is controversial for making a Duran rematch so close to their original match, not allowing him enough time to lose weight in a slower paced and healthier fashion.

But the victory was widely agreed upon as a boxing clinic put on by Sugar Ray Leonard. With the series 1-1, Leonard would revisit Duran to finish off the trilogy before the end of the 1980's.

In Leonard's third fight against Duran, he was outboxing Duran until a Duran punch left a cut over his left eye. Leonard barely made it out of the fight thanks to the hard right hand from Duran.

In the 1980's, the standard 15 rounds for a championship fight had been cut down to 12 rounds.

Had Leonard not waited so many years to have a third fight with Duran, he would have been stopped for the first time in his career.

Many ringside observers noticed that Leonard wouldn't survive the fight much longer than 12 rounds considering the amount of damage his face had taken, but Leonard escaped with the decision victory.

Leonard-Hagler

Leonard had been gone for three years when he came back in 1987 to fight Marvin Hagler for the middleweight world title.

Before the fight, Leonard named many stipulations to make sure he would be alright. He made the ring size bigger to help him avoid punches and the gloves bigger so the punches he received wouldn't be so hard.

Leonard threw out many combinations that looked impressive, but were hardly landing effectively. Leonard flurried and moved against an aggressor, who stalked and hit Leonard enough to hurt hims several times.

In the end, Leonard's flurries proved to be what granted him the split decision victory. Many press either scored the fight a draw or for Hagler, because of his aggression.

But there was also a strong group of supporters for Leonard's victory over Hagler, saying Hagler was outclassed and not effective against Leonard's movement.

Leonard-Hearns II

Leonard originally knocked out Hearns in the 14th round of their first epic fight. Then in 1989, Leonard defended his super middleweight titles against Hearns.

Hearns knocked Leonard down twice in Rounds 3 and 11. Though Leonard had some good rounds including Rounds 10 and 11, many felt Hearns had won the fight.

Even Leonard himself admitted that Hearns should've got the nod. With judges scoring the fight 113-112 for Hearns, 112-113 for Leonard, and 112-112 for a draw, the judge that scored the fight 112-112 was the only judge to give Leonard the final round by a 10-8 margin despite a Leonard not getting a knockdown.

The other judges gave the round to Leonard by a 10-9 margin. Yes, Hearns was exceptionally hurt by Leonard in the final round, but Hearns did not go down and had his own head-snapping jabs to battle Leonard back.

Despite this controversial draw, Leonard's two fights with Hearns are considered classics of the era.

Sugar Ray Leonard's Legacy

Leonard may have won against his foes in controversial ways, but the fact of the matter is that he won.

Duran lost to Hagler in valiant effort, was blown away in two rounds by Hearns, and was paid back twice over for the one loss he gave Leonard.

Hearns lost in a very decisive, yet spine-tingling and inspired knockout loss to Hagler as well as Leonard in their first fight.

Hagler did beat everyone except Leonard, who many critics and fans to this day argue should not have been awarded the decision against Hagler in their fight, but Hagler was the naturally bigger man at middleweight.

The bigger man always gets less credit for winning against the smaller man. That doesn't change the fact that they're all legends, but smaller men are given more credit for fighting bigger men.

With this combination of factors, Leonard easily secured himself as the best fighter of the 1980's. So what does this mean for Pacquiao?

Pacquiao's Legacy

Manny Pacquiao has given countless memories against the likes of Morales, Barrera and Marquez. He defeated all of them, controversy or not.

He moved up and dared to whack men who were bigger than himself. Marquez did no such thing. Mayweather did so to an extent. Pacquiao did so in far more dominating fashion.

So, does this mean he should be rated the best of his generation? No. He still needs to do one thing Leonard did that helped create his highly touted legacy—fight all of the best.

This means Floyd Mayweather. He's the last cog in the machine to get the Pacquiao name on the all-time list. A Mayweather fight is entirely necessary to dictate where on the list Pacquiao can be placed.

Even with a loss against Mayweather—so long as the effort is close or amazing—Pacquiao will likely get more credit for losing than Mayweather for winning.

Even Leonard is supplemented by Duran on many list of the greatest because of Duran starting out as a smaller lightweight who had a legendary career at the lower weight classes before moving up in weight.

Should Pacquiao win, top 10 or even top five status is not out of the question depending on how decisive or dominating the victory.

Being dominated by Mayweather in embarrassing fashion will lower Pacquiao's all-time ranking dramatically in order to emphasize Mayweather's superiority if critics and historians feel inspired by his win.

But until Pacquiao steps into the ring with Mayweather, his all-time ranking is undecided at best.