Manny Pacquiao is apparently set to retire after his April 9 fight.
While Manny Pacquiao’s absence will create a considerable void in boxing, the timing is right for the Filipino icon to bid the sport farewell.
It’s fitting that Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) will walk away from boxing less than a year after Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced his retirement.
Both Pacquiao and Mayweather, for the better part of a decade, have carried the sport through their in-ring brilliance and – ironically – the maddening postponing of their showdown.
Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. bouts were genuine marquee events, the palpable thrill of fight weeks transcending boxing’s insular confines. And when they finally did fight, five years too late, they produced a sporting event unlike any in this young century; Mayweather-Pacquiao broke every conceivable financial record, and, if only briefly, boxing dominated headlines.
It’s time, however, for Manny Pacquiao to retire. When he returns on April 9, it will be after major shoulder surgery and a pedestrian performance (to put it kindly) in the “fight of the century,” an event so overhyped and ultimately lame that boxing is in desperate need to move on – from both the bout and its principals.
Manny Pacquiao’s accomplishments and record are beyond reproach. With a burgeoning political career in the Philippines, and given his age and diminished (relatively, mind you) skills, one more fight is all that should be expected of him.
Bob Arum said he and Pacquiao had dinner last week in New York and discussed his plans for a final fight.
“I’m telling you what he told me last week at dinner in New York,” Arum said. “We talked very seriously, and he said, ‘Bob, hopefully, by the middle of May I will have been elected senator in the Philippines, and at that point I cannot engage in boxing because I need to focus on the senate and I have to be in attendance.’
“Manny told me this fight on April 9 will be his last fight.”
Pacquiao, 36, serves as a congressman for his Sarangani province, but he will run for one of 24 national senate seats.
Twelve of the senate seats, which carry six-year terms, are up for election in mid-May, which is why Pacquiao has insisted that his bout take place no later than mid-April, so he can spend at least a month on the campaign trail.
