Boxer of the Decade

Photo: Special To The NY Beacon

By Joshua Garcia

Over the past decade the sweet science through its controversial highs and lows and changes in traditional coverage to streaming services continued to provide historical feats never seen in the sport of Boxing. For the first time in the fight game there is a champion in four different decades.

Released last month was the Forbes list of the athletes who made the most money over the last 10 years, Manny Pacquaio came in 8th with $435 mil. Lebron James (#4) and Kevin Durant (#9) joined Pac Man as they all looked up at Pacquaio’s rival Floyd Mayweather at #1 with $915 mil. The duo’s 2015 mega-fight sold over 4 million pay per view buys and Pacquaio has over 20 million total ppv views in his impressive 71 fight career. No NFL or MLB players made Forbes top 10 list.

Iran abandons nuclear deal over slaying of general

Throughout the decade there are a couple forgettable nights for the General Santos City kid, but two of his four legendary battles against Juan Manuel Marquez in 2011-2012, revenge for a bad decision against Tim Bradley, and three straight wins against Lucas Matthysse, Adrien Bronzer, and Keith Thurman to finish the decade are a strong optic for Pacquaio’s current career state.

Senator Manny Pacquaio living the life he could’ve only dreamed of as a kid in the Philippines won his first title in 1998 as a flyweight and is currently the third ranked welterweight in the world at 41, the oldest man to ever be welterweight champion. Although being elected as a Senator of the Filipino governement has stunted the amount of fights, if its true you’re only as good as your last fight, PacMan’s still at the top of his game.

Pacquaio dominated the tough champion Keith Thurman in 2019 and if he can continue to defy father time possible bouts with Terance Crawford, Mikey Garcia, and a rematch with Floyd Mayweather would not only be great fights in the works but huge paydays rivaling any of them have seen yet. PacMan as the only eight division champion ever is one of the best of all-time, of course he’s fighter of the decade, and don’t count him out of the 2020’s. The New York Beacon names Manny “Pac Man” Pacquaio the Boxer of the decade.