MANNY Pacquiao turned 39 yesterday and the good senator from Mindanao should really consider retirement from boxing for good.
In December 2008, then 30-year-old Manny forced Golden Boy Oscar dela Hoya to retire in his stool. It was then Pacquiao’s biggest fight, one that would usher him to more big fights in a career that would earn him worldwide praise, making him the most-recognized Filipino athlete ever.
It was also Oscar dela Hoya’s sorriest loss and before the fight, many criticized dela Hoya for even considering such a match. It was obvious to many, too, that Oscar only took the fight for money.
Eight years later, we have Manny, who is now, as many say, a washed-up fighter at 38, talking about fight with Vasyl Lomachenko at 135 pounds, a division Pacquiao hasn’t fought in since 2008. And it’s not only that, Pacquiao has been trying to join the Conor McGregor sweepstakes and is trying to hype a fight between him and the richest boxer in the world who has only fought once.
Lomachenko vs. Pacquiao? McGregor vs. Pacquiao? The wheel of fortune has come full circle for the once great boxer from Gen. San.
Perhaps it’s time to finally call it a day. Let others take up the mantle in boxing, which according to Bob Arum, is finally realizing its mistake of going for profit instead of quality fights. Arum said that during the press con for Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux, boxing’s best matchup in years that wasn’t put on PPV.
Arum should know about going for profit over quality fights. He was with Pacquiao against dela Hoya.
At 39, Manny has done and achieved everything. At 39 too, most of the foes he has faced has retired. Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Juan Manuel Marquez have all retired.
Boxing doesn’t need a Lomachenko vs. Pacquiao, what it needs is for fading stars like Manny Pacquiao to call it quits and give way for the Lomachenkos.
Aside from a senate job, he now has a promotional outfit and he even went to China recently, in the hope of discovering the next big star. In between that and a senate job, it’s really time for Manny to call it quits.