Manny Pacquiao needs to pack his boxing gloves up! - By Robert Brown - Doghouse Boxing
Manny Pacquiao needs to pack his boxing gloves up!
By Robert Brown, Doghouse Boxing (April 11, 2013)
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Manny Pacquiao
Many of you out there upon reading this title will say, that figures this is an obvious knee jerk reaction to Juan Manuel Marquez’s stunning knockout of Manny Pacquiao in their last epic confrontation, but those of you who know my history will know that I forecasted Pacquiao’s decline in an article I wrote after the "Sugar" Shane Mosley bout. I stated in that article Pacquiao had lost his killer instinct and that he couldn’t cut off the ring and could no longer throw multiply punch combinations for long periods. Although he seemed sharper in the most recent bout against Marquez and with more head movement than in the Mosley bout, I believe I have been proven correct as a result of what happened in the Marquez bout.

The factors that should go through a fighter's mind when deciding to retire are as follows..

  • Can the fighter (in this case Pacquiao) improve on what they have already achieved? Pacquiao is an 8 time world champion in multiply weight classes, at this stage of his career it seems highly unlikely he can achieve more than what he has already accomplished.

  • Can Pacquiao devote close to 100% of his time to the sport? Well you already know the answer to that question; he seems more heavily devoted than ever to his current political position and to his family than to the sport of boxing.

  • Pacquiao choosing to stay in the sport with so many other distractions in his life could be a serious risk to his health. Although the reports in that terrible unfounded un-factual story of him possibly developing Parkinson’s disease were greatly exaggerated, there is no doubt that a serious knockout such as the one he recently suffered could cause serious health concerns down the line.

Adding all these factors together as well as many others are the reasons why I believe he should retire. I do not believe the hunger and the fighting guts is there as it once was. I believe this happened in the fight against Antonio Margarito when in the later rounds he couldn’t stomach the punishment he was handing out to Margarito and as a result pleaded with the referee to stop the fight, he appeared to ease off his opponent in the last round because he did not want to inflict any more damage to his opponent. I believe Pacquiao lost the killer instinct that night and has not been the same since and once that’s gone, it's gone forever.

In recent fights, Pacquiao has chosen to cut his training camp short by staying back in the Philippines for extra weeks instead of coming to LA. In the past 'Pacman' would do whatever his trainer Freddie Roach wanted, whenever he wanted it, now it appears Pacquiao tells Roach what he wants. In my opinion there is also major destabilization in the camp, with conditioning coach Alex Ariza and advisor Michael Koncz seemingly fighting over who’s more important than the other, which I feel is affecting Pacquiao’s preparation to successfully continue. I'd say one, if not both of them have to go.

In my opinion since Koncz is nothing more than a glorified errand boy that sorts out ticket piles, buys cars and has failed meetings with Bob Arum to sort out mega bouts as well as talks about himself in the third person constantly to make himself seem more important, if it is a chose between Koncz and Ariza going, I believe it should be Koncz because Ariza is clearly more useful, however that’s only if Pacquiao chooses to continue.

Even if Marquez and Pacquiao have a 5th fight and Pacquiao wins and maybe even knocks out Marquez, Marquez will have the excuse that he got old in the ring, so there is nothing to be achieved by Pacquiao in fighting Marquez again, he could even be knocked out before then.

Pacquiao should move onto his other life. He has been a great champion and should move on to serve his country and the world in politics 100% of the time because there is nothing worse than when a champion who out stays his welcome.

E-mail questions and comments to Robert at: robbybrown82@hotmail.com

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