By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao is said to have had a dream where God told him to hang up the gloves and go into retirement from boxing. This is interesting because this good make for a good excuse for Pacquiao should he lose his next fight to unbeaten Timothy Bradley on June 9th. I can just see it, Bradley beats Pacquiao, and then the excuses start flying. I hope not because I don’t want there to be any excuses whatsoever if and when Bradley does a number on the aging Pacquiao.

Pacquiao told the DZMM radio in Manila “I will not stay long in boxing because he [God] said ‘You have done enough. You have made yourself famous but this is harmful.'”

Well, in that case then Pacquiao should just retire then and follow the instructions God is giving him. If he’s going to take it literally then he should get out of the sport. I’d rather Pacquiao not be conflicted when he goes into the ring against Bradley on June 9th, but if Pacquiao isn’t focused, he’ll get beat. He might get beat anyway, and then we could see some excuses. If not from Pacquiao, his trainer Freddie Roach and strength trainer Alex Ariza could be the ones coming up with the excuses for the loss. It’s better for Pacquiao to either retire right now before the Bradley fight if he believes God talked to him in his dream rather than going into the fight possibly not 100% committed to still fighting. But of course if Pacquiao isn’t quite sure if that was God then I could understand him still fighting.

My guess is Pacquiao’s management will talk him into sticking around for another three to five years and by that point, Pacquiao will likely be taking losses one after another unless his promoter Bob Arum keep matches him against his Top Rank fighters. I think Pacquiao probably get another seven to ten years out of his career if he faces Arum’s fighters. Arum has a lot of older fighters long in the tooth for Pacquiao to beat upon and if he can fight them three or four times, he’ll be doing real well.