DO you seriously believe Manny Pacquiao is ready to quit boxing?
Do you really see him hanging up those gloves and stowing away those boxing shorts in glass cases?
Sure Manny had already accomplished what 99.99 per cent of fighters before and after him could only imagine. And the day will surely come when Manny will bid boxing one last adieu.
I, for one, believe Manny should quit the brutal sports while he is ahead. While he still has his faculties intact to avoid the tragic fate that befell his fellow General Santos City resident and former boxing champion Rolando Navarrette.
I wouldn’t even imagine Manny speaking with a slur, walking with a limp and living in squalid shanty begging for a strip of ‘crack’ to ease his pain for the day. That would be ‘blasphemy’ for many diehard Pacman fanatics.
Sad, but that is what Navarrette is today – the Bad Boy from Dadiangas who turned for the worst because he overstayed his welcome in boxing, because he did not save for the rainy days and instead splurge like money was going out of style.
Manny could be serious when he spoke about retirement. Which is good. At least, he knows all good things never last. Sooner, another rising star will put an end to his incredible winning streak and phenomenal rise to stardom and wealth. If he does not quit the sports when it’s time to do so.
But is the time now? Or is the timing of his announcement proper?
Manny was right.
There is nothing more left to prove and boxing has rewarded his years toiling behind anonymity by catapulting him to the apex – the Mt. Everest – of his dreams.
Except that there is one unfinished business for him.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Manny’s statement upon coming back is a veiled threat to Mayweather.
“Fight me or lose the chance to earn your US$40 million.” Manny could have said it outright. Instead he hurled the unkindest remark he has thrown Floyd’s way.
He now chooses to trash talk Floyd. Speak the American’s language albeit with more subtlety.
“He needs me more than I need him.”
Those words will not only prick Floyd’s huge ego. Those will drive him crazy.
Floyd could no longer hide behind the PED thing. He has to stand up to Manny’s challenge and face the man who took away his ‘chocolate bar’.
That is why I do not believe Manny will retire from boxing. Not this year, at least.
He will take a break from the rigors of training and actual combat to fight another battle – one that he has to win before talking about the retirement thing.
I believe there are only two compelling reasons for Manny to quit boxing – none of them Mommy Dionisa’s plea for his son to turn his back from the sports.
One is when he wins the congressional race in his adopted home province of Sarangani.
The other is after he has fought Mayweather.
Like it or not, Manny also needs Mayweather for that US$40 million pay day – his retirement check.
The lure of the spotlight is hard for Manny to walk away from unless either one or two of those reasons come his way.
Manny cannot maintain his opulent lifestyle with what he had earned and is earning right now. His businesses are not getting the returns as much as the upkeep he needed to keep those leeching entourage happy. Manny will only be happy if the people around him are grinning to their ears.
And when he stops fighting, he will realize that those lucrative endorsement deals would eventually dry up not to mention the eight-figure purses. When he stops winning, the Filipino people will start scrutinizing Manny as a man – no longer a demigod and a boxing icon.
That is why winning the congressional race is also paramount for Manny.
It is his security blanket – whichever way.
