LOS ANGELES –”He’s in pain.”
That’s what David Sisson said in a text message to a Filipino scribe who wanted to know how Manny Pacquiao spent the first day of the week following Saturday’s heartbreaker at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
It wasn’t actually Sisson’s own words.
“Ma’am Jinkee said he’s just resting in his room,” Sisson, Pacquiao’s top aide, wrote.
The last time Pacquiao made himself available to the public was about two hours after the 12-round unanimous decision defeat to Yordenis Ugas of Cuba.
When he traveled back here from Las Vega on Sunday, he didn’t come out of the big black van that his wife and Jinkee and son Israel had boarded alongside a few individuals for the 300-mile road trip.
On Monday, there was no significant sighting of Pacquiao, who told the media that he has yet to decide on his boxing future even if certain quarters have started the call for him to finally hang it up.
But the decision will come from Pacquiao himself.
“It is his call,” said MP Promotions chief Sean Gibbons, who admitted that Ugas’ style proved to be a huge problem for the 42-year-old Pacquiao.
Ugas, naturally bigger and younger by about seven years, landed a big number of overhand rights from the first until the 12th canto.
Pacquiao said his legs betrayed him as he could not shift and move from side-to-side with ease like before when everything came naturally.
Some of his trainers believe he had crossed the line.
Buboy Fernandez swears his longtime friend got burned during the six-week US buildup.
“I told him to slow down but he insisted and did more,” Fernandez said.
Even two-time world champion Gerry Peñalosa was left shocked.
“I saw one thing. He looked as if he over-trained,” Peñalosa said.
“He didn’t look fresh but I am not sure.”
Peñalosa insists it was not age that did Pacquiao against Ugas.
“He did well and he moved well but I just think that he just overdid it in training because I saw that one week before the fight, he was still running in the mountains. It could be that he didn’t get enough time to recover from all the hard work in training.”
Peñalosa added that Pacquiao’s work rate may have backfired this time.
“He doesn’t want to hold back during training. He loves to go the extra mile all the time and train hard all the time.”
