Roach tells Pacquiao to retire

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach is advising his fighter former 8 division world champion Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao to retire from boxing. Roach says the 38-year-old Pacquiao is doing a good job in his senatorial position in the Philippines, but he’s not doing as nearly a job with his boxing career.

Roach thinks that Pacquiao has too much on his plate with him trying to juggle a political and boxing career at the same time.

Pacquiao is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Jeff Horn last summer on July 2 in Brisbane, Australia. Pacquiao looked nothing like the fighter that had dominated Jessie Vargas in his previous fight last year in November. Even in that fight, Pacquiao didn’t look good.

Pacquiao’s stamina was missing in the loss to Horn. Pacquiao was also using just his left hand to throw punches, which makes you wonder whether his surgically repaired right shoulder from the Mayweather fight isn’t what it used to be.

“I think it’s a good time for him to retire right now,” said Roach to Fighthype in talking about Miguel Cotto. “I kind of wish Manny Pacquiao would follow his lead and retire also. Being a professional boxer and a senator at the same time is very difficult. He still wants a couple of more fights. He’s doing a good job as a senator right now, but not as a boxer,” said Roach.

Roach always said he would let Pacquiao know when he thought he no longer had enough left for him to continue fighting. Unfortunately, this is kind of an unprofessional way for a trainer to let their fighter know that he wants them to hang up the gloves.

Roach is letting Pacquiao know in an impersonal way by telling the boxing media rather than having a closed door meeting with his long time fighter.

Pacquiao has been fighting as a pro for the last 22 years since 1995. Things were going well for Pacquiao until he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015. That was a bad performance for Pacquiao, who came into the right with an injured right shoulder. Pacquiao subsequently had surgery on the injured shoulder, and he was able to return to the ring 11 months later to defeat Tim Bradley in a third fight on April 9, 2016. What may have hurt Pacquiao’s boxing career more than anything was him getting elected into the senate in the Philippines. Once Pacquiao become a full time senator, it demanded more of his time, and he’s not looked like the same fighter he once was. 2 years ago, Pacquiao likely would have beaten Jeff Horn with ease, but not now.

If Pacquiao fights in 2018, his promoter Bob Arum will likely match him against the Jeff Horn vs. Terence Crawford winner. Crawford is viewed by many as the one that will be waiting for Pacquiao to fight at some point in 2018. Unless Pacquiao is able to find the fountain of youth before then, he’s going to likely get beaten by Crawford.

As bad as Pacquiao looked against Horn, Crawford isn’t going to be transformed into a star from that fight. Arum has seemed eager to match Pacquiao and Crawford for some time. It’s now not even a sporting fight. Pacquiao is too over-the-hill for Crawford to be turned into a star from that fight. Jeff Horn wasn’t turned into a PPV in the U.S after beating Pacquiao, so Crawford won’t either. If Arum wants to turn Crawford into a PPV star, he’ll need to try and match him against non-Top Rank fighters like Errol Spence Jr., Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman. Putting Crawford in with Pacquiao won’t be nearly enough to make him a mega-star.

Pacquiao’s great career is going out with a whimper instead of a bang. Years ago, it was thought that Pacquiao would get out of the sport while he was still on top. Unfortunately, the opposite is happening. Pacquiao’s career has gone downhill and his trainer is telling him to retire without even talking to him one on one.