Mayweather and Pacquiao are Great

The possibility of Manny Pacquiao facing Floyd Mayweather has held the boxing world hostage for the past year or so. Much has been discussed about the two boxers. However, one aspect has been missing. That is of their utter greatness.

You can make an argument that, based on their common opponents, Pacquiao is better. He knocked out Ricky Hatton in far fewer rounds than did Mayweather, and earned a KO over Oscar De La Hoya, while Mayweather settled for a split decision. But we can say the same thing for Mayweather. He destroyed Juan Manuel Marquez, who fought Pacquiao twice- one resulting in a draw, the other in a controversial split decision. Pacquiao rearranged Antonio Margarito's face, but only Shane Mosley has ever KOed Margarito. Mayweather embarrassed Mosley last May.

We can even manipulate the above arguments to show different results. Pacquiao beat a drained De La Hoya, while Mayweather faced a fresher version. Marquez had to jump two weight divisions to fight Mayweather, while he fought Pacquiao at his natural weight.

The point is: both are great. The top 5 welterweights, from the time period after Mayweather briefly retired until Pacquaio fought at 147, were Mosley, Margarito, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, and Andre Berto. Mayweather destroyed Mosley. Pacquiao dominated the next three. There's no one at 154 to challenge either. I fear if any of the golden 4 at 140 took on Pacquiao or Mayweather, they would be beaten to a pulp.

Besides each other, the only legitimate challengers are Paul Williams and Sergio Martinez. Those two are fighting for the middleweight championship this weekend. That's how great Pacquaio and Mayweather are. They're (kind of small) welterweights and only the two top middleweights (2 of the 5 boxers pound-for-pound by the way) can seemingly even pose a challenge to either man.

Hopefully Pacquiao and Mayweather find their way into the ring against each other. But if not, maybe they'll take on Williams and Martinez. They've beaten every other apparently legitimate challenge they've faced.