By Steve Mabbott: Ricky Hatton wants Manny Pacquiao to retire from boxing due to the bad KO loss that Pacquiao suffered last Saturday night at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez. Hatton doesn’t see any point in Pacquiao dragging out his career at this point.
Hatton told Sky Sports “The only advice I could give Manny Pacquiao is that his legacy is already secured. The thing is with us fighters is that there is always one more fight. What’s he [Pacquiao] going to achieve by having one more fight? Probably nothing. He’s an eight weight world champion. There’s nothing more to be said. You’d like to see him go into retirement.”
Pacquiao isn’t just looking at fighting one more time. He’s planning on fighting another three years, which is really hard to imagine given how badly his skills are starting to deteriorate. Don’t get me wrong, Pacquiao is still a good fighter and can probably beat most of the welterweights in the division, but he’s probably not in the top 2 anymore after this defeat. Guys like Floyd Mayweather, Devon Alexander, and Tim Bradley will give him problems, and I think a slugger like Marcos Maidana and Keith Thurman would be a problem for Pacquiao as well.
Hatton was in the same position that Pacquiao is in now after he was knocked out in the 2nd round by Pacquiao three years ago. Hatton was out cold for a couple of minutes after walking into a big shot from Pacquiao, and afterwards many boxing fans suggested that Hatton retire. He eventually did retire and stayed out of the ring until recently launching an unsuccessful comeback.
Pacquiao is now receiving the same treatment from a lot of fans with them advising him to retire. He doesn’t want to hang up the gloves just yet, although he may change his mind if he suffers additional knockouts in the future.
Pacquiao wants to fight Marquez a 5th time and try to avenge the defeat and that’s probably going to be his next fight in early 2013.