Koncz says he told Pacquiao he should retire

By Boxing News - 05/27/2015 - Comments

Image: Koncz says he told Pacquiao he should retireBy Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz says he recommend to the injured Pacquiao that he should considerer retirement. Pacquiao is healing up from shoulder surgery to repair a torn right rotator cuff.

Pacquiao fought with the injury against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their fight on May 2nd, and he lost by a 12 round unanimous decision to the American star. Koncz feels that the injury to Pacquiao’s shoulder could be a sign of age. Pacquiao is now 36, and will 37 by the time he fights again.

Pacquiao looked to some fans like an old man in the “Fight of the Century” against Mayweather, and seemed like he couldn’t get himself motivated enough to attack like he needed to. Pacquiao just looked old, and unable to pull the trigger when he needed to. Even when he had a brief moment of success in the 4th round, Pacquiao stopped punching and backed up on his own without Mayweather having done anything.

I don’t know if that was the ghosts of his previous knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez crowding his mind, or if he was thinking of something his trainer Freddie Roach had been harping about how he wanted Pacquiao to get in and get out.

“I already recommended that he retire,” Koncz said via Spin.ph. “When you start to have injuries, especially at this magnitude, that’s an indication to me that the body is starting to wear down.”

I think Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum might have something to say about the retirement issue. I don’t think Arum is going to be on board with Pacquiao retiring, not for a second. Koncz might want to check things out with Arum before he brings up retirement talk when it comes to Pacquiao because I don’t see Arum being too pleased with that.

I’m sure he’d like to have Pacquiao fighting several more years until he’s no longer a pay-per-view fighter. Right now, Pacquiao is obviously making too much green from his PPV fights for him to retire, so I wouldn’t blame Arum for wanting to keep Pacquiao fighting as long as humanely possible.

All Arum needs to do is back off from putting Pacquiao in with quality opposition, and instead restart him on the Top Rank stable fighters like Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley. I think Pacquiao will be fine once he’s facing lesser guys once again. The gravy train will continue to move along the tracks nice, with the good green cash rolling in.

As long as Arum doesn’t put Pacquiao in with someone that is talented like Mayweather, or powerful like Marcos Maidana, Kell Brook or Keith Thurman, I think Pacquiao will do well. My only thought is how much longer will boxing fans pay to see Pacquiao fighting guys like Bradley and Rios? I wouldn’t want to pay to see Pacquiao fight those guys again, but believe me, a lot of casual fans would pay to see Pacquiao fight them again. They just want to see Pacquiao fight, period.

“Does Manny still have the speed and skills?” Koncz said. “Yeah. But his injuries are starting to come. But we’ll wait and see.”

Koncz says they’re not looking for a rematch against Mayweather for Pacquiao. They just want to heal up from the surgery, and make sure they’re 100 percent before they decide on fighting again.



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