By Chris Williams: Bob Arum may be in looking for a new gravy train fighter a lot sooner than a lot of people originally thought, as his #1 big money fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao is reportedly considering retirement to devote his time on his reading his bible and working in politics after his scheduled June 9th fight against Timothy Bradley.
According to abs-cbnnews.com, Pacquiao has turned over a new leaf in life, and given up vices such as “womanizing, gambling and drinking…[Pacquiao has] accepted the church’s offer to become as bible ambassador.”
The article states that Pacquiao feels that it may not look right him still fighting in the ring after having accepted the bible ambassador job.
According to the AFP, the Catholic church in the Philippines approached Pacquiao recently to see if they could get him to help promote the bible with fellow Catholics. At the time Pacquiao didn’t commit to the idea but it look as if he’s decided to help with this job.
This obviously could get in the way of Pacquiao ever fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. due to Pacquiao now considering retirement to devote his time to his politic job and the job of being a bible ambassador.
What this means for Bob Arum is that he’s either going to have to get hard at work trying to convince Pacquiao to not retire or he’s going to have to look for the next Pacquiao. Having seen the recent performance of Nonito Donaire, who many fans see as the next Pacquiao, I don’t see there being anyone that can take Pacquiao’s place. Donaire isn’t the guy, and Arum’s other money fighter WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is considered a paper champion in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. Chavez Jr. can’t bring in the Manny money, not when he’s being kept away from guys like Sergio Martinez.
If Pacquiao does decide to retire after the Bradley fight then I think the timing is perfect. Pacquiao has looked like he’s been on the decline for the past few fights, and if were to continue to fight beyond Bradley, it would very likely lead to him getting beaten if Arum decides to match him with someone good like Mayweather or Juan Manuel Marquez. Even if Arum continues to match Pacquiao mostly with his Top Rank stable fighters, there will come a time soon where Pacquiao is losing to even those guys. His legs aren’t what they once were and he looks tired all the time in the ring.
I think it might be time for Pacquiao to hang up the old gloves and let Donaire take his place. This will be fun to see how long Arum waits before matching Donaire against someone good. We may see Guillermo Rigondeaux be the Mayweather to Donaire, with Arum reluctant to test his star Donaire with Rigondeaux. I think we’re already seeing it now.
If Pacquiao does retire after the Bradley fight in order devote his time to being a bible ambassador, I just hope he’s not sorry for it later. A lot of people go into religion for a time and then snap out of it and question why they had followed it in the first place.
Comments are closed.