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By Brent Matteo Alderson - A week before Manny Pacquiao’s demolition of Ricky Hatton, John David Jackson, one of the sport’s top trainers and a former two time world champion, commented that the Filipino legend has avoided fighting African American boxers through out his career. Not surprisingly Jackson’s comments infuriated Pacquiao supporters and the socially charged issue sparked debate throughout the boxing industry.
So the question remains, has Manny Pacquiao avoided fighting African American fighters?
Now there are a few points of contention in regards to Manny avoiding black fighters. The first is with Joan Guzman. Now Guzman isn’t African American, he’s from the Dominican Republic, but his style exemplifies the type of skill set that is representative of good African American fighters.
Guzman is very good defensively, fast, fights in a constant rhythm that he combines with solid footwork, and throws crisp combinations.
So even though Guzman is a Latin American of African descent his style is the epitome of what boxing people consider to be the quintessential African American style.
Now Joan Guzman won the WBO 122 pound title in 2002 while Manny Pacquioa was the IBF’s 122 pound champ. Pacquiao had won the title a year earlier and moved up to 126 pounds to face a close to his prime Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003 in a bout in which he was a heavy underdog.
Thus for the limited time that the two fighters were champs at that weight, a fight between the two wasn’t very plausible.
At the time a fight with the Filipino was a high risk low reward proposition because he didn’t start to become one of the sports transcendent starts until after he moved up and stopped Barrera. [details]
So the question remains, has Manny Pacquiao avoided fighting African American fighters?
Now there are a few points of contention in regards to Manny avoiding black fighters. The first is with Joan Guzman. Now Guzman isn’t African American, he’s from the Dominican Republic, but his style exemplifies the type of skill set that is representative of good African American fighters.
Guzman is very good defensively, fast, fights in a constant rhythm that he combines with solid footwork, and throws crisp combinations.
So even though Guzman is a Latin American of African descent his style is the epitome of what boxing people consider to be the quintessential African American style.
Now Joan Guzman won the WBO 122 pound title in 2002 while Manny Pacquioa was the IBF’s 122 pound champ. Pacquiao had won the title a year earlier and moved up to 126 pounds to face a close to his prime Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003 in a bout in which he was a heavy underdog.
Thus for the limited time that the two fighters were champs at that weight, a fight between the two wasn’t very plausible.
At the time a fight with the Filipino was a high risk low reward proposition because he didn’t start to become one of the sports transcendent starts until after he moved up and stopped Barrera. [details]
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