Before Pacquiao Cotto: How Many of Manny’s Championships are Legitimate
Published: Nov 09 2009 by: Scott Levinson
Manny Pacquiao has claims to six world championships, but how many are legit?
Manny Pacquiao has won titles in six different weight classes (some incorrectly say five), but which ones are legitimate? Who can really sort through the muddled alphabet-soup mess? Well actually, even in the murky confusion, we can often determine a real championship from a spurious title. We must try to establish the differences in quality among the alphabet straps, or even when a fighter is “World Champion” despite being unrecognized as such by the sanctioning bodies. And we must do this “as we go” since the landscape is always changing.
Now with the influx of interim, regular, and super champions, I defy anyone to keep track of it all. A casual fan feels lost and referring to these organizations for clarity will only make it worse. Boxing insiders must rise above it, and develop a consensus and reality that might sometimes exclude the sanctioning bodies.
We cannot withhold World Championship status to a fighter in lieu of title unification, given the impossible obligations that would now entail, the absurd practice of having multiple divisional titlists even within one organization, the politics, and the unwillingness of these groups to work together. We collectively must find a new way, an essence of clarity and truth, and shun those who try to cloud it while supporting those who champion it.
Let’s look at Pacquiao’s championships and see if we can’t determine which ones were legit and which ones were not.
WBC Flyweight Champion (1998-1999)
In December of ’98, Manny knocked out Thai Chatchai Sasakul in eight rounds to win the WBC Flyweight Title. Sasakul, 33-1, was in his third defense after winning the title from Yuri Arbachakov, a prodigious talent, and perhaps the top flyweight of the 90’s. At the time Sasakul relieved him of his belt, Yuri was the recognized #1 guy, undefeated and in his 11th defense. By “beating the guy that beat the guy,” Pacquiao became “the guy.” His claim as former Flyweight Champion cannot really be challenged on the grounds of merit.
Verdict: Legitimate
IBF Super Bantamweight Champion (2001-03)
After losing his flyweight title, he immediately leapfrogged the 115 and 118 lb. classes to fight at 122. After a “reign” as WBC International Super Bantamweight Champion, he knocked out Lehlo Ledwaba to become IBF Super Bantamweight Champion. Ledwaba, 33-1-1 and in his sixth defense, was a splendid fighter, a classy and talented practitioner with an almost-irrefutable claim as being the #1 guy at junior featherweight. By the time this fight happened, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales had left the division. Their alphabet soup replacements were simply not on Ledwaba’s level.
Verdict: Legitimate
Ring Magazine/Universally Recognized Featherweight Champion (2003-05)
Here we have a situation where we are forced to virtually ignore the sanctioning bodies. In November of ’03, Pacquiao stopped Barrera in 11 rounds. No official title was at stake, but Barrera was the Ring Magazine Featherweight Champion at the time. He first cemented his status by beating #1 Naseem Hamed. Barrera further locked in his position as World Featherweight Champion by exacting revenge against WBC Champion Erik Morales, but he refused the belt. Good enough? I would say so.
We don’t need nor should we require the sanctioning bodies to cosign on what we already know to be true. If they want to get on board, fine, but if not, we must defer to a higher order of reasoning. There is virtually no way one could coherently debate Barrera’s (and therefore Pacquiao’s) championship legitimacy at this weight.
Verdict: Legitimate
WBC Super Featherweight Champion (2008)
Again, we have an alarming gap in reality as we know it compared to the often times Bizarro World of the sanctioning bodies. Why did it take until 2008 before Manny was crowned at junior lightweight by a major sanctioning body? His run at 130 began with his last loss, to Erik Morales in March of ‘05. By the end of ’06, however, he had stopped Morales twice in rematches and was the clear-cut #1 guy. Who else was there? Barrera? Well, he had already lost to Pacquiao before. Marquez? He was still at 126. Manny went on to beat Barrera again at 130, but still had to beat Marquez before getting a major belt. Whatever. He was the best junior lightweight in the world from ’06-’08, hands down.
Verdict: Legitimate
WBC Lightweight Champion (2008)
Nowadays we often hear the term “strap-holder,” which indicates a fighter who holds a belt from a major sanctioning body, but whose claim as World Champion is shaky at best. David Diaz, outclassed by Manny is nine rounds, was a strap-holder. He won the “interim WBC title” when he beat Jose Armando Santa Cruz, and later was named the organization’s champion when “regular” champion Joel Casamayor was stripped. Not exactly spine-tingling stuff.
Pacquiao needed to beat Casamayor to have become the real lightweight champion .You could almost make a case for unified titlist, Nate Campbell, but nobody thought of Diaz as the real lightweight champion. You can argue Casamayor benefited from a robbery against Santa Cruz, who Diaz stopped or that Casamayor was about to lose to Marquez, who Pacquiao beat, therefore Manny was the legitimate champion. You could argue that. And you would lose that argument.
Verdict: Illegitimate
World Junior Welterweight Champion (2009)
In today’s age, it doesn’t get more clear-cut than this. What the alphabet organizations have to say about it is almost irrelevant. I don’t know, nor do I care. Ricky Hatton was the Undisputed Junior Welterweight Champion, a distinction he had enjoyed since deposing Kostya Tszyu. By beating Hatton, Pacquiao became, and is still the recognized champion at 140. If his first bout after Cotto does not get made at 140, however, he would rightfully lose that recognition.
Verdict: Legitimate
Let’s Add It All Up! (The Final Verdict)
As of this writing, Manny has won titles in six different weight classes, five of which are legitimate championships. It’s nothing short of ridiculous to deny him his due at featherweight based on sanctioning body technicalities and maneuverings, a fact overlooked by many in the media when summarizing Pacquiao’s accomplishments.
Nevertheless, what Manny has accomplished is a staggering feat, only achievable by fighting the best, which Manny has done in almost every division he has been in. On Saturday, he goes for an unheard-of title in his seventh weight class. Would it be his sixth legitimate championship if he wins? Well, the catch-weight component, as well as the divisional presence of Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather makes that highly debatable. But it would be a good start.
Be sure to keep checking in with ProBoxing-Fans.com for continued coverage on everything related to Pacquiao vs. Cotto. You can take a look at our Pacquiao vs. Cotto preview and prediction and then on the night of the fight check in for Pacquiao Cotto results.
Photo Credit: Mike Gonzalez / Creative Commons 3.0 License
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Tags: fight preview, manny pacquiao, miguel cotto, pound for pound
the writer is not legit!
agree.. writer himself is illegit! stop the BS!
Ahm who are you again Mr. Writer? Who ever holds the belt means he is the champ the one on top. How can you say its illegitimate if David Diaz was the one holding the WBC lightweight. Maybe for you is illegitimate but to everyone else and in the boxing organization it is legit.
If it was fought and won inside the ring..then there should be no question about legitimacy.
These titles are not handed to another boxer in a silver plate.
I’m just glad your perception and biased opinion is NOT the basis of legitimacy. You should have enclosed in quotation the word legitimate/illegitimate… who are you again?
lets just talk n talk,after all, will see who can walk to walk,my prediction hasn’t fail me yet….so i stay pssitive,but we all know no”cooto”can knock ”pacman” down…
Who paid you to try to instill to boxing world that in actuality D’ Pacman only has got 5 belts under him..and the one Cotto will hand down on Sunday will only be the 6th???? No one but your pathetic moronic brain will bite your trashy blogshyt!!Git a life goof!!!!!
The man has a point. He doesn’t sound biased to me. But I have to say, Manny is undoubtedly the greatest of this generation and will even be the greatest or at least one of the greates for all time.
He is talking about “LINEAL CHAMPIONSHIP” and not the “BELT CHAMPIONSHIP”… he didn’t say that the Lightweight Championship Belt he won from Diaz is “illegimate”, but what he is trying to say is that Manny did not beat the best in the division. Try to do some research before saying things like that.
I see four for Pacquiao after the Cotto fight and with two of those being in the tradional eight weight divisions…flyweight and featherweight. Then jr lightweight and jr welterweight. Nothing’s changed in that regards after this past weekend.
Don’t see much of a case for the jr featherweight claim if one is trying to pass along the featherweight claim with the backing of Ring Magazine, as, very shortly after Pacquiao beat Ledwaba (#2 rated contender behind Bones Adams according to the Sept 2001 issue of the Ring), Paulie Ayala defeated Adams for Ring Magazine honours for that division while Pacquiao was still fighting at the weight.
With the benefit of hindsight at our disposal, we might be able to dispute the magazine’s selection there. But there was also still enough there to dispute any claim Pacquiao had as “the man” in the division at the time.
The bout at lightweight and the bout this past weekend with Cotto? These are only “world championship” fights to the sanctioning bodies (with the help of network television, no doubt, who allowed them to get their claws/influence in the sport) who put them on and also to those brainwashed by the ABC groups in their continuous attempts to contradict the factual definition of the term “world champion”. Anybody can look it up the definition of the word “champion” and see that it’s very singular with it’s definition. We also live in a singular world I do believe, although sometimes our thoughts may conflict with that fact. One weight division in this one world we live in? There can only be one “champion” for it. Definitely not four. Certainly not three. Not even two. Just one. And in the absence of one, by definition, there is in fact none. As is the case with Pacquaio at 122, where I’m not convinced at all that he was at the time “one acknowledged to be better than all the others”.