Cemented as a great of both the modern era and of boxing history, Manny Pacquiao holds a special place in the hearts of boxing fans. However, there is one active fighter who is superior, in the eyes of heavyweight icon Mike Tyson.
Pacquiao remains as boxing’s only eight-division world champion, having held world titles at flyweight and super-welterweight – and at six other weight-classes in-between, over the course of an ongoing career that began over three decades ago.
Last July, ‘Pac Man’ made his return to the sport, hoping to break his own record as the oldest ever welterweight world champion, but could only muster a draw when tasked with WBC titleholder Mario Barrios.
Barrios has since lost that title to Ryan Garcia but Pacquiao had been linked with another title shot, this time against WBA champion Rolando Romero, until the shock announcement of a rematch with Floyd Mayweather – which is currently scheduled for September.
Yet, despite the achievements of the Filipino phenomenon, Tyson believes that Naoya Inoue is a better fighter than Pacquiao, when discussing ‘The Monster’ on the Hotboxin’ podcast.
“He [Inoue] is a mean son of a b***h. You’ll see this bad motherf***a. He don’t look like much but he is better than Manny Pacquiao. Manny was doing it just like that, [Inoue is] just as good.”
Inoue has since gone on to become the undisputed champion at both bantamweight and super-bantamweight; a feat that Pacquiao has not achieved in any division as of yet.