Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s upcoming battle with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is dominating the conversation in every corner of the boxing world, while Manny Pacquiao, once considered Mayweather's equal, has a November date with Brandon Rios that has not garnered nearly as much attention.
That is because Pacquiao is coming off of two straight losses, and could be staring at retirement if his November 24th fight against Rios in Macau, China doesn't go according to plan. Pacquiao has shown supreme confidence that he will resemble the Pacman of old in China, and he continues to pine for a shot at Mayweather in his next fight.
As Pacquiao pleads his case, he explains away his last two defeats. The first one, against Bradley, Pacman claims shouldn't have been a loss at all. "Everybody knows that I won the fight," Pacquiao said. The general boxing public would agree with Pacquiao's assessment there, but defending his knockout loss to Marquez, whom had never knocked him down in three previous fights is tougher to do.
Pacquiao says Marquez just caught him with a perfect punch, but that the loss doesn't prove anything to the extent of him being finished as an elite fighter. "My condition and aggressiveness was there. That's what the fans want to see. It just happened that he got that shot in the sixth round."
Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach believes that a knockout of Rios, particularly one of the devastating kind that Pacman became famous for during his stretch of dominance from 2008 to 2011.
"Look, we all thought he beat Bradley, so throw that out. And in the Marquez fight, I thought he was doing well and was looking like he was going to win by knockout when he made a mistake and ran into a shot. That happens. That's boxing. It didn't happen because his skills aren't the same as they used to be. It happened because he made a mistake. It doesn't matter what age you are, you can make a mistake," Roach said.
Pacquiao's acutely aware of his legacy, and although he will go down as one of boxing's all-time greats with or without a Mayweather fight, he desperately wants the opportunity.
"For me, that's important," Pacquiao said. "It's going to be an important part of my boxing record."
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