{"id":531802,"date":"2026-03-12T16:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531802\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T16:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:51:07","slug":"current-world-champion-says-he-would-have-destroyed-prime-manny-pacquiao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/531802\/","title":{"rendered":"Current world champion says he would have destroyed prime Manny Pacquiao"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unbeaten pound-for-pound star believes he would \u201csmoke\u201d a prime Manny Pacquiao<\/a>, but insists their fantasy fight only takes place with strict drugs testing.<\/p>\n

As an eight-division world champion, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the Filipino reached his prime, though many would argue it was around the time he defeated Ricky Hatton.<\/p>\n

Back then, in 2009, Pacquiao orchestrated a ruthless second-round finish<\/a> in his only outing at 140lbs, before defeating the likes of Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley at 147lbs.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, the formidable southpaw had secured victories over Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, making a sizable impression on the super-featherweight division.<\/p>\n

It was at super-lightweight, though, where Pacquiao appeared to possess the perfect blend of speed and power, with his performance against Hatton offering a compelling piece of evidence.<\/p>\n

Yet despite this, WBO world super-lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson believes he would have had Pacquiao\u2019s number, telling SAY CHEESE!<\/a> that their hypothetical fight would not be remotely competitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I would smoke [prime] Pacquiao. I like him, but I [would] make sure he took them [drugs] tests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI [wouldn\u2019t] fight him without making sure he was doing the tests. No cheating or nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevenson was campaigning at 135lbs when he delivered these comments, but has since dethroned Teofimo Lopez with a career-defining performance<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

In doing so, the 28-year-old became a four-division world champion but, unlike Pacquiao, is still yet to test himself at 147lbs.<\/p>\n

Pacquiao, meanwhile, is gearing up for a rematch with Floyd Mayweather on September 19, when the two legends will headline a Netflix event at the Sphere, Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Their first encounter saw Mayweather claim a unanimous decision victory in 2015, by which point many believed the two Hall of Famers were well past their primes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unbeaten pound-for-pound star believes he would \u201csmoke\u201d a prime Manny Pacquiao, but insists their fantasy fight only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-531802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}