By Liam Santiago: The list of names that seem to find World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s great recent performances ‘fishy’ is growing and growing. Floyd Mayweather Snr. is not alone in suspecting something. Now Paul Malignaggi is dropping hints. Also, Nate Campbell believes the weight demands of Pacquiao are beating his opponents. Speaking to Fight Hype, Malignaggi said, ”There is something fishy about Pacquiao and for a lot of reasons”.

”If the situation is what I think it is, God, Pacquiao will not lose to any of these welterweights. It’s unfortunate. The level we have of testing in boxing is not really that deep. I mean, we have urine tests on the day of the fight and we don’t have much else. There’s ways to beat drug tests. We only have your standard urine tests, so, what are you really going to catch? I’m not saying Pacquiao is on anything, but you have to look really closely at the situation, because there’s something very fishy about what’s happening”.

Malignaggi continued, ”Even Margarito, when he was walking through Miguel Cotto’s firepower, you could see the pain on him. Like he had to gut it out, you know what I mean? There’s guys that Miguel Cotto has not knocked out. There’s guys that have gone 12 rounds with Cotto and lost, like Shane Mosley even. Pacquiao looked like he was walking in the park taking those punches, they were like pieces of paper bouncing off him. Even Margarito who walked through Cotto’s punches had to literally go through hell to take them. And that’s a full blown welterweight. This is a guy coming up in weight doing these things. Margarito didn’t even hurt Cotto every time he touched him. Nobody hurts Cotto every time they touch him”.

Malignaggi went on to say, ”Again, it’s not a fact, but over the course of history, have you ever seen anyone in boxing history, move up in weight and hurt guys more as they move up, or is it the opposite? The course of history has shown us that as you move up in weight, the guys are used to getting hit by bigger men so your power will no longer affect opponents like it did in your own weight class. Pacquiao is the first guy in history, and he might be the special thing that everyone says he is, he might be the first person to go up in weight and knock out more as he goes up. Me? I think that looks a little fishy. I think that’s a little bit fishy”.

In another interview with boxing scene, Malignaggi said about Pacquiao, ”I think there is something up with Manny Pacquiao. I am not going to get into it. I think people will understand what I am saying. Full blown welterweights don’t take those type of punches from Miguel Cotto the way he took them with total disregard for his power nor do they hurt him with every punch they hit him with. These are full blown welterweights I am talking about. This guy is coming up in weight and doing all these things. There is something up with this guy but that’s as far as I am going to go into it. Floyd Mayweather (Senior) has gotten into it a little bit. There have been other fighters who have mentioned it. I am not going to get into no controversy. I am going to leave it at that. There is something that seriously makes me feel weird about Manny Pacquiao. I am going to leave it at that”.

Firstly, Paul Malignaggi is a great fighter who knows his stuff about the sport. I have a lot of respect for the man and whatever he says, I will take seriously. He makes some very valid points. How the hell is Pac Man knocking more guys out as he goes up? The only fighter I can think of that has done that is Sugar Ray Robinson. He started as a lightweight and was knocking middleweights out with single punches. However, Robinson had the power he had at middleweight at lightweight. With Pacquiao it has suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Robinson was dismantling lightweights and did the same to middleweights. Pacquiao was not dismantling lightweights. How do you go the distance with a guy like Barrera, and lose to guys like Morales and draw with Marquez, then move up to divisions and knock Miguel Cotto about like a teddy bear?

Take Ricky Hatton for instance. Hatton was knocking great fighters out at light welterweight such as Jose Castillo. However, when he moved to welterweight to fight Collazo, the power was not there. Hatton could not bully him the same way he could at 140. Take Juan Manuel Marquez for instance, he went from lightweight to 147 to face Floyd Mayweather and the power was not there. Why is Pacquiao different? I am not suggesting there is anything ‘fishy’, just stating the facts.