A few days after his devastating loss to Juan Manuel Marquez last December 8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said the fight is not yet over as he assured his fans of his desire to continue fighting. ?Don’t worry, we will rise again,? Pacquiao, told his fans and reporters gathered at the airport on his return to Manila last December. “I will fight again,” he said. The fight is not yet over,? I will not retire yet,” he added. Read more: But could Pacquiao rise again after two successive defeats? The most authoritative person who can give an honest opinion on Pacquiao’s ability to recover from two successive defeats is his trainer, Freddie Roach. Roach said he will tell Pacquiao to call it a day if he feels the Filipino star is no longer capable of staging a comeback. During the next training camp, Roach will have a fresh look at Pacquiao’s overall performance with emphasis on his speed and power. Pacquiao’s reflexes will have to be scrutinized in the aftermath of his devastating knockout by long time foe Juan Manuel Marquez. ?There are things I will be looking for in our next training camp. First, it is the footwork. I will be able to tell if he starts feeling for the canvas,? said Roach, who racked up a 40-win-13-loss record as pro boxer for eight years. ?I remember when I did. I?ll look for any slight tremors. I remember watching [former heavyweight champ] Larry Holmes show a slight tremor when he was doing the mitts in training and I always thought that was a bad sign for his future. But so far, so good.? Pacquiao has yet to check in at the Lou Ruvo Center of the famous Las Vegas Cleveland Clinic for further exams to make sure he’s fine even after his medical examination in Las Vegas and in the Philippines that cleared him of any brain damage. As Pacquiao’s next fight schedule has been moved at least three times for various reasons ranging from politics to change in fight venues (Las Vegas to Macau and Singapore), Roach will have more time to spend with Pacquiao in the training camp. Roach could start the camp as early as July after Pacquiao’s planned promotional trip to Asia, Europe and the US to promote his maiden fight in Macau, China. Getting a green light from the Lou Ruvo Center and a passing mark from Roach, there is no doubt Pacquiao will rise again to continue his dominance of the sport. It must be stressed that while Pacquiao lost in his last two outings, experts did not see any visible decline in his speed and power in those fights. Fans still consider him the winner against Timothy Bradley despite the perceived flaws in the scoring by the judges. In the case of his loss to Marquez, he was winning on points when he succumbed to Marquez’s power shot in the dying seconds of the sixth round. Marquez reportedly admitted that Pacquiao may have knocked him down in the succeeding rounds if the sixth round knockdown did not happen. Nowhere in the last two fights did Pacquiao show any sign of decline both in speed and power, contrary to observations from some quarters that the eight-division champion has been less impressive in those fights.
