Pacquiao is the same exact fighter he was circa 2004

[edgarg]

Unlike Floyd who took on all comers at their prime.

He didn't take on "all comers in their prime" as you say. His fight with Corrales was VERY well orchestrated, and cherry=picked. All the boxing journalists were talking about the cleverness of his "brains trust' in picking Corrales at THAT PARTICULAR time because.......He KNEW that

1) Corrales had left the 130 lb division over 6 months before and was going to fight at either 135 or 140.

2) He knew that COrrales was in desperate straits for money, owing fortunes to lawyers and....

3) He KNEW that Corrales was going straight from the fight to jail.

4) He knew that Corrales had had the most dreadful domestric troubles for months before and had spent most of the preceding year in court appearances etc.

AND......as I have said, the journalists were complimenting Mayweather's "brains trust (as they called it) on the timing and choice.

I recall a TV programme about the coming fight, and Corrales turned up nicely dressed, smart, with a little beard and a peaked checkered cap, and eas very quiet and well spoken about the while thing. (Remember, this was just before the fight and he knew he was goign to jail unless he appealed and he had no money).

He was asked about making the weight since he had long given up the 130 lb div. and he sighed, and quietly said "....well it hasn't been easy"....... at that time probably a couple of weeks before the fight me must still have been nearly 20 lbs overweight. Then he was asked 'Why did you take the fight when you knew you would have such weight troubles, and again he sighed and said...." Well, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse.....' These quotes are exactly VERBATIM. From that time on, it's well known that he spent ALL his training time in a sweat box, and did little or no training.

TK Stewart, the well known boxing writer wrote to me about it and said that he was at the weigh in and when he saw Corrales, barely able to walk to the scales, looking actually GREY in colour, with his bones sticking out all over, he KNEW that he had NO CHANCE, although, he also wrote, Corrales was actually a slight betting favourite. (almost exactly verbatim)

Now anyone who KNOWS ANYTHING AT ALL about this period, and in particular THIS FIGHT, will back up every single word I have written because it is the exact truth.

This fight and the whole story surrounding it sticks in my memory (which happens to be excellent anyway) because, until that TV interview, I had a strong dislike for Corrales, only having seen him in the ring, outclassing and brutalising everyone he'd fought. The TV interview, showed a different, very human, quiet, respectful person (perhaps thinking of the jail sentence coming up) and it changed my whole attitude to him, a change which I've never regretted.

A guy mired in glue like he was in the Mayweather fight, starting punches and holding them because he was so SLOW it was pitiful. Every time he went down, from the sort of punch I'd seen him take in his stride without even flinching, seemed to make him collapse sloooooowly, in sections, as if he was looking for a comfortable spot on the canvas to sit on.

Yet, he was RAGING when his corner stopped the fight, he wanted to continue, I heard him shout that he was a champion and had the right to "go out on my shield".

A Total warrior.


Even then Corrales didn't make it on the first weigh-in.............

[Code Red]

All of that in fact would have made Corrales an even more dangerous opponent, nothing to lose everything to gain. And u do know Corrales stayed at 135 another 4-5 years, he wasn't drained at 130. U shouldn't downplay Floyd's win over Chico, that was a sensational victory.