By Esteban Garduno: In looking over Manny Pacquiao’s resume in the past few years since 2007, an argument can be made that most of Pacquiao’s opponents in this time period have been pretty much shot for the most part. Let’s look at who Pacquiao has fought since 2007: Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. Now obviously Diaz, 33, wasn’t a shot fighter at the time that Pacquiao chose to fight him in June 2008, but then again, few people considered Diaz, then the World Boxing Council lightweight champion, to be the best fighter in the lightweight division at the time that Pacquiao fought him.

Marquez was 34 when he fought Pacquiao in March 2008, and lost by a controversial 12 round split decision to Pacquiao. Many people think that Marquez won the fight and got a raw deal in losing to Pacquiao. There was never a rematch given to Marquez to clear up the controversial decision. But beyond those two fights against Diaz and Marquez, many people see Barrera De La Hoya, Hatton, and Cotto as shot fighters at the time that Pacquiao fought them.

Marco Antonio Barrera – This was the second fight between Barrera and Pacquiao, which took place in October 2007. Barrera, 33-years-old at the time, had just been soundly beaten in his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez in a 12 round decision loss. There seemed to be little point in Pacquiao fighting a second fight against Barrera at this stage in his career, as Pacquiao had totally dominated Barrera four years previously in stopping Barrera by an 11th round TKO in November 2003. Barrera then rebounded from that defeat by winning his next six fights before losing to Marquez. However, Barrera took an enormous amount of punishment in his wins over Erik Morales, Paulie Ayala and Rocky Juarez.

The two victories over Juarez in 2006 were especially close for Barrera, and many people thought that Barrera had lost the fight first fight against Juarez. I had Juarez winning the first fight, and had Barrera narrowly winning the second bout. However, Barrera didn’t look like the same fighter, appearing to have lost a lot in his wars with Ayala and Morales. Barrera looked like a shell of his former self when he was defeated by Marquez in March 2007. Seven months after Marquez dominated Barrera, Pacquiao fought Barrera for a second time in October 2007, beating him by a lopsided 12 round decision. It looked at times like Pacquiao was going easy on Barrera, because he never seemed to step on the gas and the fight eventually went the distance.

Oscar De La Hoya – I didn’t see the purpose in Pacquiao fighting De La Hoya in December 2008. De La Hoya, 35, had lost three out of his last six fights going into his fight against Pacquiao, and he probably should have had a 4th loss because Oscar’s 12 round decision win over middleweight Felix Sturm was very questionable with more than a few boxing fans feeling that Sturm should have won the June 2004 fight. I had Sturm easily beating De La Hoya by at least four rounds. De La Hoya came into the fight against Pacquiao looking really shot, and what seemed to add to that even more was that he agreed to fight Pacquiao at 147. It wasn’t considered to be a catch weight bout, but given that De La Hoya had been fighting at light middleweight (154) for the past seven years leading up to the Pacquiao fight, it pretty much amounted to being a catch weight fight.

I don’t know how you can call it anything other than a catch weight bout. The process of taking off weight to get to 147 left De La Hoya looking drained and weak by the time he entered the ring against Pacquiao. So not only was De La Hoya a fighter that was struggling in his last six fights going into the Pacquiao bout, but he also appeared weight drained and weak by fight time against Pacquiao. As such, Pacquiao easily beat De La Hoya by an eighth round stoppage.

Ricky Hatton Before being stopped in the 2nd round by Pacquiao in May 2009, Hatton had been beaten down by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in an 10th round TKO defeat in December 2007. That fight might not have been a big deal if not for the fact that Hatton was badly hurt twice in his subsequent bout against non-puncher Juan Lazcano five months later in May 2008, a fight in which Hatton was badly staggered in the 8th round and appeared on the verge of being stopped by Lazcano.

However, the referee pulled Lazcano off of a reeling Hatton for some unexplainable reason, and then moments later stopped the action again by allowing Hatton a time out to have his shoelaces tied just as Lazcano was trying to finish him off. Hatton recovered and went on to win the fight by a comfortable 12 round decision over Lazcano, but the fight showed that Hatton’s punch resistance appeared to have decreased since the Mayweather defeat. To his credit, Hatton did win his next fight, a 11th round TKO over Paulie Malignaggi, but then again, Malignaggi was a light puncher and not someone who could really test Hatton’s chin.

Miguel Cotto A year before Pacquiao stopped Cotto, Antonio Margarito had given Cotto a brutal beating in stopping Cotto in an 11th round TKO in July 2008. Cotto took enormous punishment in that fight, suffering a broken nose, and extensive cuts along with being badly hurt by the huge hammering shots from Margarito. A lot of boxing fans feel that Cotto wasn’t the same fighter he once was after the loss to Margarito.

Although Cotto looked as good as usual in beating British welterweight Michael Jennings by a 5th round TKO in Miguel’s first fight after the Margarito loss in February 2009, it wasn’t a real test for Cotto, because Jennings was so badly over-matched and probably had no business being ranked so highly by the WBO in the first place. Jennings looked like a 2nd tier welterweight in that fight. In Cotto’s next fight against Joshua Clottey, Cotto looked horrible, taking a lot of punishment and appearing as if he was about to quit at one point in the fight. Cotto was hurt by Clottey and didn’t look like the same fighter he was previous to the Margarito loss.