I find it funny that people equate "popularity" to what is accomplished just in the ring. While that certainly may hold true for boxing/sports fans...an even bigger component of what makes an athlete incredibly popular outside of the realm of their particular sport...is how they are marketed. How you are marketed comes down to basically two things aside from your sport specific skill. it comes down to your persona and looks. How easily marketable can an athlete be...can their look/personality SELL things or get people who are normally not interested that particular sport to get excited about the athlete and the products they endorse. There have been just a handful of athletes that have had that tremendous cross over appeal. People like David Beckham and Michael Jordan come immediately to mind. Those are athletes that almost anyone...whether here in the states or in Africa...will instantly recognize. Not only because of their on field accomplishments, but as much for how widely marketed they are (commercials, endorsements, clothing, etc.). In boxing, it is particularly rare to find superstars with that kind of cross over appeal. Oscar and Sugar Ray Leonard (to a lesser extent)...are the boxers in the last two decades that have attained that kind of popularity. Pac certainly is popular among boxing fans and is obviously a supersar in his hometown. But he is nowhere close to being a global superstar. He simply cannot be marketed the same way as someone like Oscar. Not now and probably not ever.