LOS ANGELES, California—One of the men in Manny Pacquiao’s innermost circle doesn’t want Sunday’s fight to be the Filipino boxing icon’s last.
“Give Sir Manny a farewell fight he truly deserves as a sports hero,” Sean Gibbons, president of Pacquiao’s boxing outfit MP Promotions, told BusinessMirror on Tuesday. “He deserves one.”
Gibbons said that just like basketball superstars Michael Jordan and the late Kobe Bryant and tennis ace Andre Agassi who all had farewell games, the sitting Philippine senator should be honored the same.
But Gibbons said the final decision rests in Pacquiao, who, at 42, couldn’t summon the speed and fury in fists and quickness in his feet and lost via unanimous decision to Cuban Yordenis Ugás last Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“It’s really up to the senator to answer that [retirement], but I believe Sir Manny [Pacquiao] deserves a tremendous farewell somewhere in the world—the objective is to give back to him, like Kobe Bryant’s last game and Michael Jordan’s, like all the greats,” Gibbons said.
“The senator has to have a fight of the night, a party, or just like a celebration of everything he accomplished in boxing,” he added.
Gibbons said yielding to Ugás was only one loss that won’t diminish all the greatness Pacquiao established in the ring.
“There’s no shame in anything, we took a gamble in a certain type of fight after preparing for a left-handed match for seven weeks—and the style just wasn’t good,” said Gibbons, adding that he intends to talk with the eight-division world champion next week about his plans.
A rematch with the 35-year-old Ugás (27-4 record with 12 knockouts), Gibbons said, could be a possibility after the Cuban said he’s willing to give Pacquiao (67-8-2 record with 39 knockouts) a rematch “if he likes to.”
Pacquiao has been spending most of his time in his room with wife Jinkee at their apartment along North Laurel Boulevard in Los Angeles.
PACQUIAO OVERTRAINED?
VETERAN promoter Aljoe Ortiz Jaro said Manny Pacquiao lost to Yordenis Ugás overtrained, especially in his running regimen that caused his legs and thighs to develop cramps during the fight.
Jaro, who is now based in Orange County where he manages the California Health Care Provider, told BusinessMirror that he saw Pacquiao’s determination to execute his team’s fight plan but couldn’t execute in the middle and later rounds because of fatigue.
“It should be that two weeks before the fight, he must slow down in training—no more running on the hills of Griffith Park,” said Jaro, adding that his coaches should have focused instead on mind-setting motivation, more mitts and fight plan “rather than too much running.”
Before heading to Las Vegas a week before the fight, Pacquiao ran for a minute at Griffith Park and around the University of Nevada, Las Vegas track oval the following day. He also sparred no less than 25 rounds at the Wild Card Gym, which for Jaro is “an absolute no.”
“He [Pacquiao] was overtrained, that’s why he’s cramped and he experienced fatigue all over his body. That’s my observations and that’s the truth,” Jaro said. “His mind wanted to do it, but his body couldn’t respond because he’s too tired.”
Jaro hinted that he favors a farewell fight for Pacquiao but he should face either Robert Guerrero or Amir Khan and avoid unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. or a rematch with Ugás.
Jaro produced some of the country’s best former world champions, including International Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight champion Florante Condes, World Boxing Council (WBC) lineal and Ring Magazine flyweight titlist Sonny Boy Jaro, IBF flyweight champion Amnat Ruengrueng of Thailand, WBC minimumweight champion Denver Cuello and world youth super bantamweight winner Bernabe Concepcion.
Image courtesy of Wendell Alinea