By Allen Hmiel: Manny Pacquiao seems to be walking on water and glorified by the boxing public as a great fighter. He isn’t. Pacquiao through management and astute match-ups coupled with the great training abilities of his trainer Freddie Roach has been given easy winnable fights over old battered and way past their prime fighters on the downside of a good careers. Careful and cautious planning has made Pacquiao look far better than he really is. While building a credible record most at the smaller weights, Pacquiao has dined on fights with less talented fighters and counting the 7 fights between-Marquez-Barrera and Morales who has he really beaten that signifies Pacquiao as great?

Marquez gave him tough fights and might have won one of the decisions that went against him. Look at Manny’s record who has he really fought and knocked out that was a legend? Marquez was outclassed terribly and humiliated by Mayweather losing every round in a gross mismatch.

Pacquiao beat an unmotivated sluggish weight drained De La Hoya, he then beat a much overrated defenseless Ricky Hatton, followed by beating a shell-shocked and battered Cotto, a paycheck driven sacrificial lamb in Clottey and a humbled shamed well rested probably rusty Margarito. These fights propelled Pacquiao into a state of adulation and greatness that when one looks closely is nothing more than 5 carefully planned out wins over flawed opponents that were ready to fall to the fake mystique and over hyped skills of a small Manny Pacquiao. Catch weight fights also gave the advantage to Manny as his larger opponents had to starve themselves just to make the assigned weight. Give credit to the match making of Arum and Roach as they created this fake aurora of invincibility around an over-hyped Pacquiao. Boxing fans love an underdog and Pacquiao has been placed in fighting situations where all the advantages tilt towards the little guy.

One can only hope that Mayweather can get all his problems behind him and fight Manny and end this empty fake charade of greatness surrounding a very good but not great fighter. Pacquiao has had his time in the spotlight now it’s time for it to end. When the smoke fades and the mirror is cracked all that will be left is a small little guy exposed for being just average.