Despite eight-division world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao personally saying that his boxing career is “tapos na,” one of his close aides claimed that the Filipino ring icon’s pronouncement is “not yet final.”
MP Promotions President Sean Gibbons said in an interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports on Tuesday that Pacquiao’s final decision on his boxing career will come in the next few weeks.
“The Senator is a presidential candidate and has made no decision on boxing career yet. He will in the next few weeks make a final decision whether to have one more or retire,” Gibbons said.
“When (Manny) does make a decision whether to have one more fight or whether to retire, the announcement will come through official channels from the senator himself,” he added.
In an interview with Toni Talks vlog of actress/TV host Toni Gonzaga last Monday, the Filipino boxing legend said that his boxing career was “tapos na” and will instead focus on promoting younger Filipino boxers.
“‘Yung boxing career ko, tapos na. Matagal na rin ako sa pagbo-boxing,” Pacquiao said. “‘Yung pamilya ko lagi sinasabi na tama na. Nagtuloy-tuloy lang ako kasi passionate ako sa sport na ito.”
“Magsu-support na lang ako ng mga mas batang Filipino boksingero under sa MP Promotions para magkaroon tayo ng mga world champion ulit,” he added.
It is not surprising whether the 42-year-old boxing legend decides to hang up his boxing gloves as he already dropped hints to it following his defeat to WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas last month.
It was definitely a storied boxing career for Pacquiao, who started with a four rounder bout in January 1995 at Sablayan. At present he has 62 wins (39 by way of stoppages), eight losses and two draws.
In his 26-year boxing career, Pacquiao went on to dominate his succeeding bouts and later captured world championship at flyweight, super bantamweight, super featherweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, super welterweight, and bantamweight.
Along the way, Pacquiao has defeated fellow boxing legends such as Oscar dela Hoya, Marco Antonio Barrera, Eric Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Oscar Larios, Ricky Hatton, Timothy Bradley, Adrien Broner, and Keith Thurman.
Pacquiao also suffered a handful of defeats to American fighter Floyd Mayweather Jr., Jeff Horn and Ugas./ASC, WDJ