By Joel Nepomuceno: In light of Saturday night’s total annihilation of Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao laid claim to being the only boxer to have seven titles in seven divisions. The past few days as the high of his dominance comes to a calm, skeptics naturally question if Manny Pacquiao really is a once in a lifetime talent or is he getting assistance with some sort of performance enhancing drugs. Floyd Mayweather Sr. will tell anyone who listens that he’s very suspicious of Pacquiao’s dominance. Mayweather Jr., when asked about Pacquiao claims they have the best performance enhancing drugs in the Philippines (a country with a 40% poverty rate). Are these accusations valid or are the sources looking for ways to discredit Pacquiao’s recent run at history?

The Las Vegas Athletic Commission has, on numerous times, stated that Pacquiao has never tested positive for any type of performance enhancing drug before or after a fight. While it is true that the development of PED’s have made them almost undetectable, the development of tests geared towards detecting them have taken a giant leap as well, evident to the amount of high profile athletes who have been caught by being tested positive for usage of PED’s. Roy Jones Jr., Fernando Vargas, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettite, Manny Ramirez, Marion Jones have all tested positive for use of PED’s which give an indication that while these drugs are becoming harder to detect, the screening process has been able to keep up with the advancement.

It’s not wrong to question his success as he climbs in weight, but let’s look at the facts…is what he’s doing really unbelievable or is he really that talented? Forget the fact that Pacquiao started his career off at 106lbs at the age of 16. Let’s compare him to another well known fighter who has 6 titles in 6 divisions, Oscar De La Hoya. When Oscar De La Hoya started his career at 19, he fought at lightweight (133lbs to be exact). At his highest weight, he weighed 160lbs against Felix Sturm. That’s a difference of 27lbs from the age of 19 to the age of 31. Pacquiao, at the age of 19 fought at 116lbs and then fought at 144 lbs at the age of 30—a difference of 28lbs. Is there foul play at work or is there actually talent that doesn’t come along too often that we are witnessing?

Look at it in another way. Most boxers dehydrate themselves to make their fighting weight. Why? Because they want to weigh in as light as possible in order to fight int he lowest weight class possible. It’s not atypical for a boxer to gain 12-15lbs from weigh in to fight night. Pacquiao, at the higher weight classes (Jr. Welterweight and Welterweight) has gained only 4lbs from weigh in to fight night. His fighting weight at the Cotto fight was presumably 149. If he wanted to be fight at a lower weight division, he could technically have fought at Lightweight, gained 12-15lbs from weigh in to fight night, and still be at 149 come fight night. Everyone saw 24/7 when Cotto was cranky because he hadn’t eaten, while Pacquiao consumes 7,000 calories during training to stay at that weight.

What about his punching power you may ask? Pacquiao has always been known for his punching power. Even his days at featherweight, he was thought of the hardest puncher, pound for pound. But how has he carried his power to knock out supposedly bigger guys? Has he really carried his power to an unbelievable degree? On one hand, David Diaz stated, “I can handle his power, but I can’t handle his speed”. Oscar De La Hoya said “He doesn’t hit very hard”. But the other hand, he knocked out Hatton cold, and he hurt Cotto badly in the 4th round. But did he gain that much more power from his fights with Oscar De La Hoya to his fight with Hatton? All boxing experts know, and most boxing fans know that it’s the punch you DON’T see coming that hurts you. Hatton has stated, he still doesn’t know how he got knocked out because he didnt’ see the punch. The punch that rocked Cotto, he had no idea where it came from, just look at the replay. Both picture perfect punches to the chin which is the ideal place to hit someone to knock them out.

So has Pacquiao had illegal help in the form of performance enhancing drugs during his amazing run up the weight divisions? Non believers and skeptics such as the Mayweather clan can continue to accuse of such things, but I prefer to just enjoy the once-in-a-generation entertainer we have in Manny Pacquiao without skepticism or judgment. If, in the future there becomes a foundation and substantial evidence to support the accusation of Pacquiao using sort of performance enhancing drug to get the edge, then I’ll be the first to admit that it really is time to be skeptic, not just Pacquiao, but of all athletes that achieve greatness that is not too often seen.

To Mayweather Sr. who doesn’t believe Pac is doing this naturally because he took the shot of a big welterweight and just shook it off, my question for him is, how do we know that Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn’t on PED’s?….the last time he took a shot from a big welterweight….well…when was the last time he took the shot of a big welterweight?