Tomas to Manny: retire

CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, too, wants Manny Pacquiao, whom he considers a personal friend, to retire, but for a different reason.

He said Pacquiao’s succeeding opponents will likely run away and wait for him to tire before coming at him in the later rounds and that would make his fights “boring.”

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The same word was used to describe Pacquiao’s recent bout with Ghanaian Joshua Clottey, whom the mayor said perfected the art of covering and running away from Pacquiao. Miguel Cotto tried it but did not manage to effectively employ.

He said Miguel Cotto used the same strategy, only that Pacquiao managed to catch the Puerto Rican several times en route to 12th-round TKO.

“Pacquiao got himself into a very dangerous situation. If you punch, you lose energy, and he was letting himself fall into the guy’s (Clottey) game plan,” the mayor said.

He said even the legendary Muhammad Ali concentrated on defense in the early rounds of one of his fights with George Foreman and pummeled him when Ali noticed that Foreman already lost steam.

Pacquaio threw at least 100 punches for each round of the 12-round event last Sunday.

The mayor said he could understand that Pacquiao wanted to satisfy the viewing public and those who packed the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

“He wanted to give the people something, that’s why he was pounding away. But he was being tired out,” he said.