Manny Pacquiao: A career shadowed by PED abuse

This article is written from the perspective of what I have seen as a boxing fan. It is my belief, and the belief of many others, that Manny Pacquiao’s extraordinary career is owed to the fact that he took Performance Enhancing Drugs in order to help himself move up and down in weight and become the first eight division world champion and the first four weight lineal champion. Here are the reasons for this assumption:

The first and probably the most convincing piece of evidence is not actually Pacquiao’s maintenance of his speed and power as he moved up in weight but the fact that he developed a strong chin which had not been there in the early part of his career. In 2000, against Nedal Hussein he was dropped by a jab in round 4 and he was dropped again in 2003 by Serikzhan Yeshmagambetov.

However in the latter part of his career he was walking through the punches of Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley and Oscar de la Hoya to name a few. It does certainly beg the question of where this chin suddenly appeared from. People who argue that Pacquiao was KO’d by Marquez which highlights Pacquiao’s bad chin should remember that it is very likely that Marquez was on some form of PED for that as well.

Now turning to Pacquiao’s skills as an offensive fighter. What is so impressive about Pacquiao’s ability is the fact that he can throw 5/6 punch combinations in rapid fashion, take a step back, and fire again seconds later. The volume of punches he was throwing in the late 2000s in his fight was simply ridiculous. Fast forward to 2015, when he fought Mayweather, and both fighters had had random drug testing, Pacquiao was physically unable to throw the combinations he had been throwing in previous fights.

Furthermore, Pacquiao’s style and frame is not suited for someone who should be moving up and down in weight all the time. The reason Mayweather was able to move up in weight was because of his defensive style. Mayweather sacrificed his punching power in order to move up to welterweight and light-middleweight. Pacquiao has not sacrificed anything, be it hand-speed, punching power or ability to take a punch and in some departments he has even improved as he has gone up in weight which is simply not natural.

In his fight with David Diaz, (the first time Pacquiao fought at 135lb), the HBO commentators were shocked about Pacquiao’s physique going into the ring:

‘To me I am just amazed that he is fighting at his 4^th weight division and look at his body. I mean usually when a smaller guy moves up in weight you see a lot of fat or something like Duran but he looks perfect.’

‘By our lights it appears you were faster than ever and stronger than ever.’

It is the unwritten rule amongst sports pundits: innocent until proven guilty. This is certainly the case in boxing. The sports’ top pundits are not allowed to express their own, sometimes controversial opinion, in fear of being reprimanded. This is not just the case with PED abuse but in all areas of the sport; the political and shady aspects of boxing are ignored by top pundits because it brings their career into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

There are just too many examples which highlight the fact that Pacquiao was probably on some form of Performance Enhancing Drug at some point in his illustrious career. If he was not then he should take it as a compliment that so many people are convinced he was on PEDs.

Finally, if Pacquiao did use PEDs then, like many other boxers, he has exploited the sport we love by cheating and, more importantly, he has put the lives of the people he has fought in great danger. We will never know whether Pacquiao did use PEDs and it will remain one of the great boxing mysteries of our era.

Tom Eckett

@boxingguru44

https://twitter.com/boxingguru44