Video After The JumpBoxing fans love to debate which fighter is the greatest of all time. In such debates, people generally up end going old school vs new school.
For most though, Muhammad Ali has been considered the greatest and most well known boxer of all time.
Manny Pacquiao's advisor Michael Koncz doesn't think that is the case anymore. At least not when it comes to popularity. He tells reporter Elie Seckbach that Pac Man is now the biggest name boxing has ever seen.
"I think it's all the things we've been doing. 60 Minutes programs, you know - 24-7 again. It's put him into that category of a rock star," Koncz said "I think he's one of the most popular boxers ever, even more than Ali. You gotta remember Muhammad Ali, and he was my favorite boxer. He never became world wide famous until the draft issue, it wasn't because of his boxing. [Ali was convicted for refusing induction into the military]. And I think that's what's happening to Manny too. Like I said with 60 Minutes, the Dateline show that we did, the Jimmy Kimmel show that we did twice. We're taking him out of the boxing circle and putting him into the household."
Koncz makes some interesting points, but Ali became worldwide famous without the internet, pay-per-view, Showtime and HBO. I think that's a really hard comparison to make.
In other Pacquiao news, it's looking more and more likely that his next opponent will be either Sugar Shane Mosely or Andre Berto.
Juan Manuel Marquez was also in the running, but promotor Bob Arum said his asking price was way too high.
“Marquez's proposal was so out of line for anything that he got before… I don't think Manny is going to pay any attention to it,” Arum said in an interview with FanHouse.com
On the possibility of Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Pacquiao, it doesn't look like that fight will happen until at least the end of 2011, if at all.
Oscar De La Hoya of Floyd's promotion team Golden Boy is accusing Arum of ducking his fighter. Arum is calling bullsh*t on that accusation.
"That's totally nonsense because you can argue over the first situation, the first go around. They had one position, we had another. But on the second go around we gave in to every one of their positions. We were so anxious to make the fight and Mayweather didn't want to fight," Arum said "And even today we will do the fight unconditionally, unconditionally! And all Mayweather has to do is say ('yes') he wants the fight."
So our poll for today is, who is the greatest fighter of all time? Use whatever criteria you want to - popularity, pay-per-view buys etc But the most important thing in determining the greatest is boxing skills.
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