He Thought Manny Pacquiao Was Nothing Special... Then He Regretted It.

Everyone kept saying the same thing, a big skilled fighter will always beat a small skilled fighter. That had been the rule in boxing for decades. But then came a man who proved the opposite again and again, Manny Pacquiao. He climbed through division after division taking on opponents who were much taller and naturally bigger than he was and making them look helpless. Today we'll take a look at how Pacquiao dismantled some of boxing's true giants. The first was the Mexican monster himself, Antonio Margarito. Standing 5 feet 11 inches, he towered over the 5 feet 5 and a half inches Pacquiao. The size difference was enormous, but inside the ring, it was Pacquiao who dominated the leaving Margarito's face badly swollen and capturing a world title in his 8th weight division. Good shot to the body, there's a right hand by Margarito. That's so noticeable, the hand speed, isn't it? Tremendous. Margarito now throws a jab, had a couple of body shots, slips a right hand through. And Pacquiao answers with 5 of his own. Look at the movement, slides to the left, then he bounced, goes back to his right, throws a barrage of punches. Came with that left hand from out of nowhere. Punch combination, he's got Margarito going backwards. It's pretty nasty right now. Remember he said after 4 he was going to start busting him up. He's already started it in the forefront. Margarito has done nothing to take advantage of his height, his reach. At this point, it's a glorified sparring match, with Pacquiao having his way with Antonio Margarito. Look at him, blocking him on the elbow. He comes with the uppercut, he catches it with his hands. This guy's extraordinary. It's an absolute clinic that he's putting on right now. He is beating Margarito up, and Margarito now in retreat. He might be ready to drop him. He could be. Watch this stuff here now. Watch the hand speed of Pacquiao, and look at the power right between the gloves. And watch this, watch this. Boom, right on top of it. And right back with another show of that power. I mean, his seat in Canistota, he saw it already. Oh yeah, Margarito got a little bit of a wake-up call, and now he's just paying for it. Margarito on his prime was relentless like this. Pacquiao had to start throwing punches from the get-go. And again, he's got him backing up. And they should have been, but Margarito cannot execute against him at all. Yep, and that's what I was concerned with. With all the rumors floating around was the conditioning, the spring in his step. Well, looks like the same old fantastic Manny to me. Absolutely does, and he's just so sharp. I mean, we may be looking at one of the greatest fighters that ever lived. I mean, if statistics and whatnot tell the story, certainly eight world titles, he's going to win his eighth tonight. Now, I think that one punch got Pacquiao's attention. Oh, that's a big left hand by Pacquiao. The ropes, and kind of getting things back to where they were. Listen to the crowd as the bell rings. And another right hand from Margarito on another one. Manny throwing shots, get just a hair careless there for a second. And now he bounces right back. A six-punch combination right there. And a six right on top of him. Right on top of him. And the way he's able to unleash those combinations, he's got such incredible balance. Jimbo, you said the energizer. Test himself. Look at the face! Vicious shots, and Margarito taking them and smiling. And Pacquiao's going, wow. This is a tough customer here in front of me. Extraordinary. He's got to slow down. I mean, it's not humanly possible to continue at the rate that he was energizing, bunnying along. You would think. Well, of course, that's what I said against Claudio too, and when he threw 1,300 punches. To win the fight and certainly have to knock him down two or three times to even get in the fight. Yeah, it's hard to make a case for Margarito having won any round, although I think Pacquiao has kind of taken this round off a little bit. Still landing big shots, Barry. Yeah, but not exactly right. Not as, not as good. Oh, the right eye, rather. And he just took about five shots. Oh, and another beautiful shot from Manny Pacquiao. That was an uppercut. Look at this. Pacquiao. An absolute frenzy. Yeah, it's just been a terrific night. They're seeing an absolute clinic here from the champion, Manny Pacquiao. Yeah, this fight should be stopped, and if the corner was smart, they would stop the fight. Oh, Margarito throwing a huge right hook, and now he's in trouble. Lawrence might just be admiring his work and forgetting where he's at at the moment. Stop this fight. Yeah, this is way, way past what should be. How many more times are you going to hit him in the head? We knew Manny was very fast. And we were going good until I got cut, and then that's when the problem started. Next came the legendary Oscar De La Hoya. Has been his skill. My motivation has been his youth. Height, five feet, ten and a half inches. Before the fight, many believed Pacquiao was simply too small. Instead, the exact opposite happened. Manny completely outclassed Oscar, winning round after round until De La Hoya's corner stopped the fight before the ninth round. Back out of trouble and then into the punching range. And his speed has probably been a little bit of a surprise for Oscar so far. And here is Pacquiao on the right side of his screen. And he gets off by hitting Oscar. Oscar De La Hoya looked tight in the opening round. He looks tight right now, too. Manny nails him with the right hand. Now, Oscar was a natural southpaw, so he's got considerable power with his left hand, but he hasn't been able to land it yet. Manny's landed the heavier blows and more blows. You gotta get a piece of him. Let's start there. Yeah, get inside. He wants the right hand lead against Pacquiao, but Pacquiao is really quick with his feet. Oscar fighting a little on the flat footed side. Manny right up on his toes. It's magic so far for Pacquiao's ability to go in and out. Always you say hit and don't get hit. In and out, in and out. And that's exactly the way Manny Pacquiao is fighting right now. There's the uppercut. Straight left hand. And he's showing extraordinary patience. He lands his best shot, then he gets out. In a second, I should say. That was a left hook that got through that time, but it was with an outstretched hand of Oscar. There was no power behind it. No, but it shows where Oscar De La Hoya's fight plan is headed. Straight left hand down the middle, snapped the head back of Oscar. Oscar hasn't done enough to win the first two minutes of this round. Here's Manny Pacquiao, the straight leaping left hand. We'll get that off the move. And how do you get that shot through? A lead shot on Oscar De La Hoya. The quickness he poises gets through. Throws a shot that... MGM Grand Garden Arena. The obvious hand speed of Pacquiao is just that. It's so obvious. He couldn't manage to win any rounds or many rounds, if any, against Oscar. And Manny Pacquiao is certainly more than holding his own. It seems like every time he throws the right hand, Manny's dipping. And making even when he lands, there's a right hand in the jaw of De La Hoya. Unleashes an assault to the body. Nothing powerful. But this is. In terms of power, Oscar De La Hoya has already been touched up more by Manny Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather for the whole fight. Pacquiao is doing and clearly doing more, in my opinion, than Mayweather did in the fight. Mayweather gets a split decision. Pacquiao's... That's the way he gets himself ready to fight. It's all business in the ring. And it's a dangerous sport. Peter Pacquiao with a minute gone. Oscar just parring with the jab. Not really stepping up into it. Not throwing the left hand to the body with any viciousness at all. Much as he's thrown there. And the power. Here's a guy that's come up from 106. And he's a legitimate welterweight power puncher here. He has been terrific moving up. Meantime, Oscar De La Hoya has not looked good coming down. This is not a comfortable weight class for him tonight. In losing efforts to Bernard Hopkins, to Mayweather, twice to Shane Mosley and Felix Trinidad. He didn't look this bad. Pretty soon not going to be issued for him. Oscar's left eye closing up with that jab and the left hand falling with it. And now here he tries to exchange with Manny. Nothing that he throws lands. And Manny touches him up. So nothing really working for Oscar. Even when he opens up, Pacquiao is landing more shots. And there's Pacquiao with two and then a left hand down the middle. And we're used to Oscar De La Hoya standing. Most surprising part of this fight is how Pacquiao has maintained his speed and still has good power at 147. You know, he threw the right hand that time with kind of the thumb out and the palm up. That's not the way you throw a power shot with your right hand. Oscar not getting off right hands. And this has been the fight since the beginning. Pacquiao's power bothering Oscar De La Hoya. Be taking a real close look at stopping this win. Look at this action. Pacquiao, three shots. And when do you see Oscar De La Hoya? As I say that, Pacquiao pours the pressure on him. And this might be the miraculous finish of the career of Oscar De La Hoya. Pacquiao really labeling him. Feigning is everything that Freddie Roach has told him to do, he's executed. And we've seen De La Hoya again on the ropes with the sanctuary. Don't mess with this guy. Power shots right downstairs. And look at Pacquiao. Right away that he just couldn't get off. He's really putting the pressure on at the end of round eight. Almost puts Oscar De La Hoya down. The right eye is closing. And after this. Next was the undefeated Chris Algieri. Height, five feet, 10 inches. The American planned to use his height and reach advantage. Instead, Pacquiao put on a boxing clinic. Algieri was knocked down six times and somehow managed to survive until the final bell. Did he call that a knockdown? Because his right foot slipped from beneath him. And the replay will show that on that low blow. But it's officially scored as a knockdown. There might have been a punch behind it. Rodriguez, a veteran of more than 70 world title fights. Call that one right. Yeah, he has. He's caught him, I think, three times that I've counted so far. With the lead right hand. When he loads that up, that's his power shot. You can knock a guy out for that. Nice body shot by Pacquiao. And now his work rate is coming up a bit and landing more. Body shot. Nothing too heavy. Man, he looks almost a little frustrated sometimes. Well, that body, if that's what they were talking about in the corner. Algieri is certainly executing it. He walked into a nice uppercut there. His back protects himself, takes him on the glove. Of course, Freddie thought that this fight wouldn't go past three rounds. You know, Freddie is... He backs his guys. ...as he may have heard him. And that's kind of the way he rolled over against Provodnikov in the first round of the last fight. It was that first shot that got him. That was a pretty good straight left hand. He heard him again and dropped him. That's a knockdown. This makes it 10-7 round. Algieri's claiming that he slipped in the corner again. And he may have. We're in round seven. Kotae Arena, Macau. Pacquiao to the left. Algieri with his name in the back. Now to the left. Manning with a nice combination followed by the right hand. Manning gets the left hand through that time. I think Pacquiao's fighting with a little more intent in this round. Yeah, he seems to be. He's looking for it, I think, Colonel. Manning's not picking up that title. Because if... Oh! Straight left hand right down the middle. And Algieri's down for the fourth time of the fight. That's the best knockdown of the fight. It's up to seven and eight. Is he going to make it? Yeah, he just gets up. Wow, that was a tremendous punch. A sensational power back. Scorching shot by Manning Pacquiao. Certainly the best punch in the fight. And that's the first real serious knockdown. And there's a ton of time. Algieri's in a heap of trouble here. I think he went down to a knee. They're going to have to score that as a knockdown. So he's down two times here. And his eyes are glassy. Here comes Manning again. Remember, there's no three knockdown rule. But Gino can stop the fight if Algieri can't defend himself. Manning's on top, but he wants to knock him out right here. Look at this. He said the fire's back, and he's throwing like it is. And he's trying to take him out. Pacquiao thought the fight was being stopped right there. I don't know why Gino stopped in the hands of three. Because he doesn't know how much time is remaining in this round. And Pacquiao is giving him really a wallop. The inside is 10 seconds to go. It looks like he'll survive in this fight. Algieri, to this point, is getting an old-fashioned whoop, as they say. His legs are shot right now. ...off the pebble sometimes. Later, I'm sure Freddie is reminding him again, go get that knockout. Knock this guy out. And he'll give him a chance to knock him out. Margarito, as tough as they come. But Algieri, very tough, too. But he's not standing up to Manny Pacquiao after being down five times. I'll never forget Roach telling Manny Pacquiao in the corner when Manny had Oscar De La Hoya in a bad way. Look, it's your job to knock him out. You know, Manny's just really overpowering him here. Algieri's legs actually look stronger now than they did about a minute ago in this round. Boy, he cracked him again. Manny catches him with a powerful left again. Here's the combination and down goes Chris Algieri for the sixth time in the fight. His eyes are clear. He should be able to contend with his standing eight. Not standing eight, the eight-pound. Says he's okay and his eyes are clear. Those 19 world champions, current, past, interim that he's fought, you just can't underestimate the value of that. With that kind of experience of big fights. Then came former world champion, Jesse Vargas. Another tall champion at five feet, ten inches. From the opening bell, Pacquiao was faster, sharper, and more dangerous. There's one long right here, Timothy Bradley. As Pacquiao steps in, you can hear this crowd is winning these rounds. And round one, the people gave to Manny Pacquiao. Please, that's his favorite because they don't know. Neither one of them did anything. A little more action though. And Pacquiao doesn't want to get caught up on the weigh-in. Vargas was dropped in the second round. Because that looks like Vargas is trying that. Does that work? And after 12 rounds, Manny earned a clear unanimous decision. Proving once again that speed and skill can completely erase a size advantage. What he does, he blocked your jab. He'll block your jab with his right hand. And he'll come with his straight left down the pipe. Vargas' legs are split. Pacquiao looks fluid with the combinations. 19 weeks training camp. Not purposely. 19. 19 weeks. Not purposely because he had a fight with Carol Brooke. And it fell out. He was a world champion at 112 pounds. I mean, this is not even his weight class. It's where the money is. You see Pac out now, dropping punches down to the body now. Boy, as Vargas is hitting, he'll hit him with a couple of good shots. Yeah, particularly the right hand. You know, Vargas, you gotta stay relaxed. You gotta listen to his corner. Good left hand by Pacquiao as he steps in. Vargas took it well. Vargas with ice. The faint right hand and comes back with the jab. Good combination, ice. Pacquiao answers with his own left. I think Vargas is having a good round right now. He's having a real good round right now. That's when he stepped in. Steps in with the right hand again. Just like that. Interesting rounds in, Bradley. Vargas trying to establish that right hand. There it is, right there. Pacquiao gives you subtle moments to be able to attack him. When he puts his hands up, bams his gloves together. The crowd will go berserk over shots that don't land. Jumps in again with that left hand. A lead left. It's a point, but it ain't hurt. Oh, nice shot to the right. Firing to the very bell. Nice right hand. Had that jab straight up the middle and he lands it again and again. So he is landing this and scoring and doing some damage. A whip right. Quick jab in there in that round. There it is. Manny Pacquiao, what he did was he followed Vargas' jab right behind it. Landing a quick right hand and a straight left after. Timmy said it. He's looking for it. There it is. Another clash of his. And now Pacquiao with his left power shot. I got a commission saying it came from a punch. Did it? Now the head seemed to clash there. Now do we see the blood? And now there's shots. Now how about that? That was a punch straight on the eyebrow. We are a much more humane sport now than we used to be. If you watch the old fight films, blood would be flowing. They would even be thinking about stopping it. Good right hook by Pacquiao. Strong jabs from Manny Pacquiao. Here are those punches. For a round 10, Pacquiao outlanding Vargas according to CompuBox. Throwing about 100 more punches as well. Putting his foot on the gas pedal. Let's watch this again. Yeah, they're on each other's feet. So Vargas is on Pacquiao's feet and then gets crossed up. But he got hit. He got hit and punched from. He threw it from like almost his hip. You know, Vargas is expending so much energy, Tim. It's a point you brought up early. He's expending so much energy just standing there while Pacquiao is completely still. And finally, Shane Mosley. Height, five feet, nine and a half inches. Despite being the naturally bigger and stronger man, Mosley had no answer for Pacquiao's incredible speed. Manny even scored a knockdown and cruised to a dominant unanimous decision victory. And there's Pacquiao with his best punch of the fight. A left hand that got between the gloves of Mosley. Pacquiao continues to try to work the body. A little short with that left hand. All right, let's take a look. Manny had a wider edge in that second round than he might have had in the first round. There's a combination. He got there with the first punch with the jab. Couldn't follow it up with the left cross, however. As even Nassim Richardson, the trainer of Mosley, said yesterday. Oh, the nice right there by Mosley. It was, but he took a left from Pacquiao. You can really tell Pacquiao trying to heed what Freddie Roach said and pace up here in this third round. Mosley, he just needs to answer. He's going to have to start throwing that bomb of his. He's on the defensive. Well, he is and Pacquiao left hand drops him. Right on the button and it caught him going a little sideways. Let's take a look at it, Barry. There's the left hand side of the chin. Mosley going down very awkwardly. And he stayed in that position for a couple of seconds. There's the left hand. Down goes Shane. Real knockdown. And look at the look on his face. What was that that just happened to me? Yeah, dazed almost. He's trying to get some life in his legs here. Another left hand at the top of the head. Pacquiao just stalking him. Goes missed. And now he's felt the power of Manny Pacquiao. That buckled his legs again. And that's not going to be a knockdown, but I'll tell you what. Fantastic training camp. Said to be in better condition and going better than he's ever been. Oh, here goes the right hand by Mosley. Finally, it happened. Back comes Pacquiao. But it is a legal punch. Barely. There you saw him duck down, go to the body, and then come up with a left hand to the head. So you prepared defensively to block the body behind it. Pacquiao, not an easy guy to jab. You've got that left hand out in front. Plus he gives you that side to side upper body movement too. Pacquiao building up momentum now. This looks like... Shane said, I feel I have so many advantages. Smile out of Pacquiao there. Hand just missed. I can see why he might want to move a little bit to his left and try to throw that left hook. Well, I think so. And we're in the eighth round now. And Pacquiao clearly... There's an uppercut from Mosley, but Pacquiao answers. And a left hand from Pacquiao. All right, there's Pacquiao coming forward, right, and then the left that followed. And that sends immediately Shane Mosley backward again. Basically moving, trying to move out of harm's way. His legs gave way a little bit right there, Barry. Never letting Mosley's jab get started, which is a good right hand. It's kind of a push right hand. Now, I don't know what Mosley was saying. It was a headbutt there again. I didn't see one that time. All right, let's take a look. First of all, there's that headbutt that bothered Mosley. There's a left hand that hurt Mosley. Still 20 seconds to go in this round. Two more left hands. And I just thought that that made Manny Pacquiao angry. And he wanted to go out and punch. And that's what he's doing. And there's another good right hand that pushes Mosley backward. Endless and dramatic fashion. The scene said nobody fights like Pacquiao. We can duplicate his high energy and training, but all his moves are different. He's difficult to prepare for. Pacquiao trying to finish the job.