Arum: Pacquiao’s last fight is on April 9th

By Boxing News - 10/25/2015 - Comments

Ellerbe and ArumBy Allan Fox: Promoter Bob Arum is confirming that his fighter former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) will absolutely be retiring from boxing on April 9th in 2016 in order to focus on his political career in the Philippines. This, of course, will also depend on Pacquiao being elected into the senate in the Philippines in May.

If he loses the senate race, then it’s unclear if he’ll still retire or not. But as popular as the 36-year-old Pacquiao is in his home country of the Philippines, it’s difficult to picture him losing the senate race. The only way that Pacquiao could lose is if the boxing fans choose not to vote for him because of their desire to see him continue his pro career.

Pacquiao is already a congressman in the Philippines, but he aspires for a higher post than that. He wants to become the president of the Philippines one day, and becoming a senator is path to take to get to that position.

Pacquiao’s impending retirement puts more pressure on Arum to pick the right opponent for him to fight in order to either maximize revenue or maximize the benefit that it could have for Top Rank. To make the most money, Pacquiao would need to take the biggest risk by facing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Gennady Golovkin. Pacquiao can still make a lot of money fighting Amir Khan, but I’m not sure that he or Arum cares about money at this point. They both just made a killing in Pacquiao’s last fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., so money might not be as important to either of them at this point.

“I’m telling you what he told me last week at dinner in New York,” Arum told ESPN.com. “We talked very seriously and he said, ‘Bob, hopefully, by the middle of May I will have been elected senator in the Philippines and at that point I cannot engage in boxing because I need to focus on the senate and I have to be in attendance. Manny told me this fight on April 9 will be his last fight.

There’s a great deal of interest surrounding who Arum will pick for Pacquiao’s opponent for his final fight in April. I say Arum because most boxing fans feel that it’s Arum who does all the choosing for Pacquiao when it comes to the selection of his opponents. Arum likes to say that Pacquiao has the final say so, but many fans believe that Arum is completely in charge of who the Filipino fighter faces. That’s why Pacquiao has found himself in the ring with Pacquiao’s Top Rank fighters in the past like Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto, Brandon Rios, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley, and Tim Bradley.

Arum’s stable is no longer what it was in the past, and now there are just a small handful of names for him to select from for Pacquiao’s last fight. But none the less, Bradley and Terence Crawford’s name is on the list of fighters that Arum will be choosing from for Pacquiao’s final fight in April. Amir Khan, a non-Top Rank fighter, is on the list as well, but he’s not considered someone with a real chance of getting the fight.

Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has been clear that he would like to see him fight Danny Garcia next if possible. Roach believes that Garcia is made to order for Pacquiao, and he thinks it would be an exciting fight. Unfortunately for Roach and Pacquiao, Arum doesn’t like that fight. He’s not interested at all in matching Pacquiao against Garcia, who is managed by Al Haymon. Arum says that Garcia arguably lost to Lamont Peterson and Mauricio Herrera. Arum just doesn’t see it as an interesting fight to him. Unless Pacquiao is going to speak up for himself to specifically request Garcia as his opponent, we won’t be seeing him take that fight.

Pacquiao turns 37 in December, and he has enough left in the tank to probably fight for another two or three years if he wanted to. It would depend on the kinds of fights that he takes. Pacquiao hasn’t take much punishment since his loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012. Pacquiao’s fights against Tim Bradley, Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri and Floyd Mayweather Jr. were fights where he wasn’t hit that much. Mayweather beat Pacquiao, but he didn’t land a lot of heavy shots. It was mostly jabs and occasional right hands.



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