By Chris Williams: The World Boxing Organization has reportedly named Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO’s) the fighter of the decade and WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) the fighter of the year, according to Philboxing.com. The WBO made their choices at the WBO 25th convention. Unfortunately, it’s pretty subjective stuff that sounds as if it was more popularity contest rather than what Pacquiao and Donaire have actually accomplished in the ring. I wouldn’t pick either Donaire or Pacquiao for fighter of the year or the decade.
Look Pacquiao. He’s won a lot of titles, but a lot of the belts he won weren’t against the best fighter in the weight classes he picked them up in. With there being four titles to choose from for each division, it makes it pretty easy for a fighter to pick up easy paper titles by picking out certain champions to grab an easy title against. Two of the eight titles that Pacquiao won were catchweight titles against Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito. I don’t see how those should even count as actual titles when it’s a catchweight. You know what I mean?
A catchweight handicap should disqualify that as counting as a real title win. It should be considered an exhibition fight, because we don’t see catchweights in sports like baseball, football, hockey, soccer, wrestling…etc. Pacquiao’s win over Juan Manuel Marquez in 2008 to capture the WBC super featherweight title was highly controversial, and a lot of boxing fans still Pacquiao lost. I don’t see how Pacquiao can be fighter of the decade with a win like that or his controversial draw against Marquez in 2004.
Donaire hasn’t beaten anyone that you can really get excited about since his victory over Fernando Montile in 2011. Instead of fighting the two best fighters in the super bantamweight division in Guillermo Rigondeaux and Abner Mares, we’ve seen Donaire fight Jeffrey Mathebula, Toshiaki Nishioka and Wilfredo Vazquez. I don’t see that as worthy of Donaire being fighter of the year unless the WBO has a really low bar for that distinction.
Comments are closed.