By Chris Williams: As much as I’d like to get on board with all the Manny Pacquiao fans and drink the kool aid to become one of them, I just can’t because Pacquiao hasn’t fought the type of opposition that I think he should have had to get all the adoration from his lovesick fans. I’m not impressed with Pacquiao’s wins over Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto, or Joshua Clottey. I see all those fighters as either shot at the time that Pacquiao fought them are not the same fighters they once were due to recent defeats that they had suffered.

For me to really respect Pacquiao, I have to see him step it up and fight welterweight Paul Williams and WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. I don’t care if Pacquiao has to drag them into some energy draining catch weight in order to fight them, I won’t look down on Pacquiao is he feels he needs a handicap to fight them, even though he walks around at 145. Martinez may be a middleweight now, but he was a junior until recently when he defeated former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik in April to take his titles.

Martinez is really a junior middleweight fighting at middleweight. So, if Pacquiao fights both Williams and Martinez, I’ll have massive amounts of respect for the guy. But until then, I see Pacquiao as a fighter that has benefited due to careful match-making rather than because he was a great fighter. I don’t see Pacquiao ever fighting Martinez or Williams, because his trainer Freddie Roach will put a stop to those bouts happening if he thinks that Pacquiao will lose, and it appears that’s what the case is because Roach isn’t interested in having Pacquiao fight Williams. I’m not impressed with Pacquiao fighting Antonio Margarito, because I see that guy as a badly faded fighter who is on the career downward slide. Fighting that guy instead of Williams or Martienz seems like a cherry picking move to me.