By Chris Williams: Brandon Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia says that this Saturday’s HBO PPV fight between Manny Pacquiao and Rios will be Pacquiao’s last pay-per-view event because Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach will be having a retirement party for the soon to be 35-year-old Pacquiao after he gets knocked out by Rios.
Garcia notes that Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has mentioned on the last two Pacquiao/Rios 24/7 episodes on HBO that he’ll be advising Pacquiao to retire if he sees that he doesn’t have it anymore. Garcia sees Roach sitting down and having that long talk with Pacquiao after the beating he receives from Rios in this fight.
Garcia said “Freddie had better buy that gold watch for Manny, because the retirement party begins on Saturday night. I guarantee you this will be the last time you ever see Manny Pacquiao on an HBO Pay-Per-View.”
I have two questions about Pacquiao going into this fight. My first thought is whether Pacquiao will listen to Roach’s advice if and when he tells him to retire if he gets knocked cold by Rios. My second question is whether Pacquiao will still be a PPV fighter if he loses the fight to Rios but then continues his boxing career regardless of Roach telling him to hang up the gloves.
Will Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum stubbornly keep Pacquiao as a PPV on HBO or will Arum tell Pacquiao he needs to have his fights on regular HBO because he’s been losing too many fights and that future fights might bring in diminishing returns on PPV.
Garcia feels that the gold watch ceremony for Pacquiao will be taking place after Saturday’ fight, but I’m not so sure that he’ll choose to retire.
Some fighters like Evander Holyfield have stuck around until the bitter end and fought way past their prime. I can somehow see Pacquiao continuing on even after he gets beaten by Rios and any number of fighters. Yes, it’s going to make Roach look like of silly if he still sticks out as Pacquiao’s trainer with him losing left and right, because Roach will need to say something about why Pacquiao hasn’t retired despite him having told him to do so.
The way Roach talks he seems to be under the impression that Pacquiao will follow his directions to hang up his gloves if he tells him to do so, but I think Roach might be in for a rude awakening if Pacquiao continues to chug away with loss after loss.
This Saturday is a fight where anything at all could happen. I know Pacquiao’s the favorite, but he also was the favorite in his last two fights against Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley and we saw what happened in those fights. I see the Pacquiao-Rios fight as a toss-up bout that could go either way depending on how each of them does in taking power shots.
If Rios can handle Pacquiao’s power, then we’ll likely see Pacquiao get knocked out at some point in the fight. I don’t think he can take 12 rounds of power shots from the younger and naturally bigger and stronger Rios. Pacquiao has too many miles on him to be taking 12 rounds of Rios’ power shots, and he’s not young enough move for 12 rounds. The days for Pacquiao to move around the ring 12 rounds.
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