By Dan Ambrose: Rex Salud, the business manager for Manny Pacquiao, has confirmed that Paquiao will be back in the ring in September of this year and that he’s in a must win situation when he does return.
Salud said to the Manilatimes.net I believe he can still fight. Pacquiao remains to be the strongest and the fastest boxer of all time, but he needs to focus more on his boxing career. If he focuses very well, no one can beat Manny for sure.”
I don’t know if it’s possible for Pacquiao to recapture what he once had just by putting more focus on his boxing career. For one, Pacquiao is getting older and he’s been fading for the past five bouts. You can’t blame all of those performances on Pacquiao not focusing.
Pacquiao has really slowed since the Miguel Cotto fight in 2009, and at this point just focusing on boxing might not be enough for him. It would obviously help him, but I don’t think it would be enough to overcome the ravages age and all the ring wear that Pacquiao has.
Additionally, he was just badly knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez and there’s a big question mark surrounding Pacquiao’s ability to recover from that knockout. He could come out in September and get knocked out again, even if he lives as a boxing monk with no social life or outside interests.
We just don’t know what will happen with Pacquiao after the kind of knockout he suffered. With football players, when they suffer injuries or bad concussions, they think they can come out and play as they always have, but it often doesn’t work out. One with bad knees aren’t able to run like once did, and the ones that have suffered concussions sometimes suffer additional ones.
Pacquiao probably will be back in the ring in September, and he likely be facing Juan Manuel Marquez for that fight. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to do well. At this point it’s no longer a situation where Pacquiao can succeed simply by putting in more work. He’s got to be smarter now because his body is starting to slow down on him. He needs to put more focus on trying not to get hit, and being more selective when he does attack his opponents.
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