{"id":732784,"date":"2026-08-09T20:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T20:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/732784\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T20:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T20:08:19","slug":"i-wouldve-knocked-him-out-fighter-who-retired-undefeated-says-manny-pacquiao-avoided-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/732784\/","title":{"rendered":"“I would’ve knocked him out”: Fighter who retired undefeated says Manny Pacquiao avoided him"},"content":{"rendered":"

While never quite securing the opportunity to do so, a former world champion has claimed that he would have \u201c1000%\u201d knocked out Manny Pacquiao<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Filipino icon was only stopped three times in his 73-fight Hall of Fame career, with the first two occasions arriving when he was competing down at flyweight.<\/p>\n

After suffering a third-round stoppage defeat to Rustico Torrecampo in 1996, when he was just 17 years old, the eventual all-time great encountered the same fate in his WBC title challenge against Boonsai Sangsurat around four years later.<\/p>\n

More notably, Pacquiao would eventually get knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012, by which time he had already become an eight-division world champion.<\/p>\n

But while \u2018Pac Man\u2019 was a typically durable customer throughout his career, Terence Crawford believes he would have become one of the very few to stop him.<\/p>\n

The pair were actually in talks to collide in 2020, back when \u2018Bud\u2019 held the WBO welterweight title and Pacquiao was the WBA 147lb champion.<\/p>\n

As it happened, though, Pacquiao was subsequently scheduled to face Errol Spence Jr in another unification match, only to lose his title to late replacement Yordenis Ugas<\/a> after \u2018The Truth\u2019 pulled out with an injury.<\/p>\n

Crawford has therefore told Above The Rim<\/a> that, had their showdown come to fruition, it would have been him standing triumphant in the opposite corner, but still maintains that the Pacquiao team \u2018didn\u2019t want it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only person I wish I would\u2019ve got the opportunity to fight. [I would\u2019ve] 1000% [knocked him out]. Numerous times, we were lined up to fight each other. They didn\u2019t want it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, Pacquiao has previously said that, while he would have loved to fight Crawford, it always felt as though Top Rank promoter Bob Arum was \u2018preserving\u2019 him<\/a>.<\/p>\n