Ring labels Pacquiao boxing’s Mr. Excitement

Manny Pacquiao has indeed come a long, long way.

In the extra issue of The Ring magazine, regarded as the Bible of Boxing, Pacquiao shared top billing with Oscar dela Hoya and Arturo Gatti where he was candidly praised and extolled for his boxing prowess and billed as one of the top fighters of his generation.

"American movie houses may never book his latest film Lisensyadong Kamao (A License to Punch), but American fight fans are beginning to understand why Manny Pacquiao is such a big star in the Philippines. With an animalistic fury that recalled the vintage days of Aaron Pryor and Roberto Duran, he thrashed Erik Morales in January, leaving no doubt that he is one of the top fighters of his era," Don Stradley wrote in the lead paragraph of his full length piece on the Filipino boxing icon titled "Pac-mania explodes worldwide."

Stradley also paid tribute to Pacquiao’s penchant for thrill, saying, "Pacquiao wants to be Mr. Excitement all the time. Even when he’s not at his best, he guarantees some thrills."

Only a handful of fighters even come close, he added.

That includes Gatti, the reigning welterweight champion, who has been the sport’s most exciting performer for a decade until Pacquiao came along.

While Gatti has been exciting against good but not great fighters, Pacquiao is exciting against future Hall of Famers. And that’s the difference.

"Pacquiao is more exciting than Gatti for different reasons," boxing historian Bert Sugar told The Ring. "Gatti is exciting only because he’s a blood-and-guts fighter. You want to see how much he can take before you see what he gives. Pacquiao is a tornado, I haven’t seen anything like him since the old films of Henry Armstrong. He’s exciting because of what he dishes out, not what he takes. Pacquiao is exciting because of what he does and how he does it." – Dante Navarro