Manny Pacquiao broke down David Diaz over nine rounds Saturday as he made his claim to being the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter. Pacquiao dominated nearly every minute of the fight before finally putting Diaz on the canvas in the ninth, leading referee Vic Drakulich to stop the fight without even bothering with the 10-count.

To many, this was the fight that secured Pacquiao’s spot as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter. For others, it was the fight to make you consider him the pound-for-pound number one. Here at lukekohler.com, we have had Pacquiao hovering around number five in the P4P rankings, but this win will surely move him up.

Pacquiao showed that he is in fact a great fighter in this destruction, albeit against a hand-picked opponent. This fight was reminiscent of Floyd Mayweather’s destruction of Carlos Baldomir in 2006, in which an elite fighter picked apart a much slower, but big-hearted, paper-champion to win a belt. It wasn’t so much that Pacquiao is that good, we know that he’s not, it’s that he had that good of a matchup.

This is still the same Manny Pacquiao that got utterly destroyed by Eric Morales in 2005, and was beaten twice in many people’s eyes by Juan Manuel Marquez. That’s one decisive loss, one controversial draw and one win by the narrowest margin since 2004, a resume that many believe should read as 0-3, not 1-1-1 in those fights. That is not the resume of the world’s best fighter. Sorry Pacquiao fans, I know you guys think you run the Interwebs, but Manny’s still not as good as you want him to be, no matter how many David Diaz’s you put him in the ring with.

The fact is, there are a handful of lightweights that would be sizable favorites against David Diaz, including Joel Casamayor, Nate Campbell, Juan Diaz, and Michael Katsidis. If Pacquiao clears out that division, I’ll give him more credit than I currently give him.

I don’t want to take anything away from Manny, he certainly put on a great performance. In fact, I think this was the best Pacquiao has ever looked. The only fight in his career I’d rank as highly as this one is his first fight with Marco Antonio Barrera. Barrera I is the only win Manny has over an elite, prime fighter in his career. He lost to Morales in his prime, then beat him a few fights later — clearly not the same Morales. Many feel he is 0-2 vs. Marquez. His wins against people not Barrera, Morales and Marquez consist of C-level names like Fahsan 3K Battery, Hector Velazquez, Oscar Larios, and Jorge Solis. The only one of them with any career resume is Larios, and he moved up from 122 to fight Pacquiao at 130! He had just lost to Israel Vazquez, and then fought Pacquiao! That’s the level of opposition that Manny has built his cult following around.

I like Manny Pacquiao. He seems like he’s genuinely a nice guy, and fights because he loves the sport. I have nothing but respect for the person and the fighter. I just take issue with the idea that he should be crowned the best fighter in the world, when he so clearly isn’t. There is a great argument to be made that he’s never been the best fighter in his weight class (at least since he fought at 122) much less the best fighter in the world.

Having said all that, I will be moving Pacquiao up in the lukekohler.com pound-for-pound rankings when they are issued for July. He won’t be number one, but he also won’t be number five.

As for what comes next, rumored opponents for Pacquiao are Edwin Valero, Ricky Hatton and a third fight with Marquez. None of them are 135 pound champions. A Hatton fight wouldn’t happen until early next year, so it’s possible that a fight with Valero (which I’d love to see) could happen in the fall.

I will concede that Pacquiao may be the most exciting fighter in the world, at least of the elite guys. But I’m not even close to ready to calling him the best fighter in the world.

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