“I saw the replay and it just happened. That’s boxing. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I am not going to complain or worry about what happened. That’s boxing,” stated multi-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, who talked about his devastating knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez last December. He looked to be on his way to winning that fight before making the costly mistake of carelessly charging in to close the show, giving Marquez the opportunity to land a perfect counter right hand in the final seconds of the 6th round. Although Pacquiao brushed it off and appears to have put it behind him, at the very least, the incident has made him think twice about throwing caution to the wind and fighting as recklessly as he has in the past.
“That’s what I want; his style of fighting. He likes to come inside and I like that style. I don’t like to chase and I’m pretty sure I won’t have to chase him,” Pacquiao explained during a recent conference call as he discussed his long-awaited November 23 return to the ring against Brandon Rios. “I will not go for the knockout in this fight, but if I have a chance to finish early, why not? But I am not thinking that I need to knock him out. In training if I focus on a knockout I will get careless in the ring on the night of the fight. So what I need to do is focus in training so I am ready to get in the ring on the night of the fight.”
Despite the slight change in fighting philosophy, Pacquiao still expects to entertain the fans with his all-action style. “This is going to be a good fight on November 23. It’s going to be a good fight with a lot of action in the ring. I am going to do my best to put my name back on the top of boxing. I am doing my best in training and I am very excited for the fight,” he added.
