Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum does not want his star fighter, Manny Pacquiao, to get in the ring again, if the boxer's training is affected by his duties as a senator in the Philippines.
Two weeks ago, Pacquiao suffered a shocking upset decision loss to 2012 Australian Olympian Jeff Horn, who was taking a major step up in class.
All three judges had Pacquiao, 38-years-old, losing the contest before a crowd of over 51,000 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
Despite many observers scoring the fight in Pacquiao's favor, many of them also felt the eight division world champion was a shell of his former self and lacked his well-known movement, speed, conditioning and combination punching.
There is a rematch clause that Pacquiao can exercise.
Since becoming a senator last May, Pacquiao's political career has really taken off and the boxer has a lot of obligations and duties that he's never had to deal with when boxing was his only line of work.
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, believes the boxer is overtraining and needs to seriously make a decision on whether he wants to be a fighter or a politician - because he's physically killing himself to juggle both jobs.
Arum agrees with Roach.
“If he is going to fight this guy again, he should train seriously hard and figure out what went wrong in the first fight. But if his senate duties will affect his training, then he should retire," Arum told The Manila Times.
“I will probably talk to Manny a week or two weeks from now. I will wait for his body to heal. Maybe I will go there in Manila and General Santos and talk face to face with him. So I will know whatever decision he’s going to make. (I hope) it is an intelligent decision.
“Everybody should relax and take it easy like what I told Manny and Jinkee. Think about what he wants to do. If he wants to retire, that’s fine. We will arrange a celebration and if he wants to do a rematch, that’s fine. We will arrange his rematch. Nobody should pressure him and there’s no need to rush."
2023-10-18 22:16:21
