By Chris Williams: Boxing promoter Rex Salud thinks that Manny Pacquiao shouldn’t rush back into the ring to fight on April 20th like what’s being talked about for him. Salud thinks Pacquiao’s KO loss to Juan Manuel Marquez was so brutal that he should take at least six months off to let his head recover from the knockout just to be safe.
Salud said to Philstar.com “I don’t think it’s advisable for Manny to fight on April 20 as scheduled by Arum. He should take a long rest, at least six months and stay away from boxing. A lucky punch did it.”
I agree with the six month part, but I don’t agree that it was a lucky punch. It’s never a lucky punch when a counter puncher like Marquez hits you. It’s part of the game and there’s no luck involved; it’s pure reaction to what opportunities are there after an opponent has attempted a punch.
In this case, Pacquiao led the way with a couple of feints and then he threw a jab, and Marquez responded to the jab with a big right hand that smacked Pacquiao in the face, sending him down and out. Believe me, that wasn’t luck. We saw Marquez hit Pacquiao a number of times with right hands in the fight when Pacquiao was pressing Marquez against the ropes. It wasn’t luck then that Marquez hit Pacquiao with right hands. It was skill.
If Pacquiao comes back quickly and fights in April, he’ll be taking a chance because he suffered a bad knockout and when you get stretched like that it can lead to that fighter getting knocked out in the same fashion in the future when they get hit had.
I suspect Pacquiao will choose to ignore the danger and fight in April anyway and we could see him get knocked out again if he does this. His promoter Arum needs to be looking out for him to be the voice of reason so he doesn’t get hurt again because next time it could be even worse if he rushes back in the ring too soon.
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