By Chris Williams: With WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao insisting on playing for the PBA, it puts him at risk for injury and it could jeopardize his November 22nd fight against unbeaten Chris Algieri in this fight at the Cotai Arena in Macao, China.
Pacquiao wants to play basketball and says he’ll only be playing a few minutes, but when you’ve got an important fight like his upcoming fight against Algieri then the last thing you want to do is play a game like basketball.
Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is worried that Pacquiao might not be focused on the task at hand against Algieri.
“I am just worried that Pacquiao won’t be focused on an unknown but dangerous Algieri. The 30-year-old American challenger is undefeated in 20 bouts with eight coming by knockout,” Arum said via Philboxing.com.
Pacquiao isn’t young and good enough to overlook a fighter like Algieri. Maybe he could have overlooked him 5 years ago when Pacquiao was knocking out everybody he faced but that’s not the situation for him any longer. Pacquiao is now slower, easier to hit, and not even close to the fighter he was in his prime in my estimation.
If Pacquiao is thinking basetball while he’s training instead of boxing, then we could very well see Algieri box circles around on him November 22nd and make him look every bit of his age. Pacquiao is turning 36 in December, and that’s not young especially for a little fighter. The small guys generally wear down in their early 30s for some reason, and Pacquiao is in his mid-30s heading towards 40.
Pacquiao should forget about playing any other sport but boxing until his career is over, because at age 35, Pacquiao isn’t a spring chicken. All he needs is an ankle or knee injury and he’ll be out of the ring for a significant amount of time.
With knee injuries, Pacquiao might lose his mobility even when he recovers from the injury. Once Pacquiao can no longer move around like he used to, he’d be like a butterfly without it’s wings.
Comments are closed.