Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy G-Force View Post
First of all, there seems to be alot of negative bias towards Manny on this site. I can fully appreciate and understand the suspicions that have arisen regarding this affair, but whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty ??

I've been reading about this for while, but as of yet, I've not bothered chipping in with my 2 cents until now. Now I like to think I'm pretty fair, and bearing in mind that Manny has battered 3 of my 4 favourite fighters of this era, it would be very easy to jump on this PED witchhunt. The bottom line is I cant, it's not fair. Until I have concrete evidence, then as far as I'm concerned, Manny is innocent.

Did I ever believe that Manny could move up to 147 and beat Oscar ? No I didnt. Do I think that win was down to PED's ? No I dont. The simple fact was that Oscar was done, shot, finished. I still give Manny props for doing what he did, but it hardly took a superhuman effort to beat what was a shadow of the Goldenboy. It was nothing more than perfect timing for Manny, and Roach knew this.

Do I think beating Hatton was the result of PED's. No I dont. I was told from someone within the Hatton camp, 3 weeks before the fight that Ricky would get knocked out. Rick had been struggling badly and getting beat up by lesser sparring partners. This KO really didnt come as a massive surprise. Even a peak Hatton would have been beaten by Manny, although not as easily. For me, Manny just had all tools required. Also, my other worry before this fight was how strong Manny looked at 147, albeit against a washed up De la Hoya. This told me that Ricky would no longer have the most important advantage in his game at 140lbs, which was his strength. If he couldnt bully Manny then he was as good as done, and he was.

Now for Cotto, did I believe that Manny would prove to be the stronger of the two as the fight went on ? No I didnt, that really defied conventional logic. But the start of Miguels demise was the fact he got hurt, badly and early, end of that story. I watched Cotto struggle at 140lbs for a while, I was very happy to see him move north and always believed he would be much better suited to 147lbs, and he was, but he was never a monster at 147lbs, like say Margarito.

The bottom line is acclimatization to the higher weight classes didnt happen overnight. This was, as far as I'm concerned, done very astutely over a period of time, and in my eyes, legally. Most fighters, even brilliant world champions, struggle to move through the weights with a great level on consistency. Very few manage to achieve what the likes of Floyd, Manny and Oscar have done in this era. But lets not forget this is a different era to years gone by. The dieting, nutritionists and the overall scientific approach that we have available for todays athletes are far superior to anything we have had before. Also, lets not forget, Floyd, Manny and Oscar are all very special fighters.

It's very easy to pass judgement on Manny, and the anti-Pac brigade are having a field day with this. It's certainly far from normal for a fighter to move from 108lbs all the way up to 147lbs and be competative with the worlds best. But it is possible, and I firmly believe that to the case with Manny, without PED's.

Why do I stand by Pacman ?

Firstly, with regards this whole testing situation. One thing I learnt from being around the Hatton camp during their negotiations with Manny is that he is a very hard man to deal with. Manny has so many people around him that he is influenced by, and to his detriment I believe.
Yepp, I've definitely come to the conclusion that everybody affiliated with Pacquaio is an asshole.

Hey, even head asshole Roach admitted that Pac wasn't the same guy he first met. Not saying that isn't the case with most famous people but you certainly don't expect to hear it from his trainer and it just seemed like a nice way of saying "Manny's a bit of a cunt these days"

I think one thing every boxing fan can universally agree on is the hope that both parties can put ego's aside and make this damn fight happen.

If it doesn't happen, when people ask me what I think the biggest robbery in boxing was? I'll reply with Manny Pacquaio vs Floyd Mayweather.