By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) says he’ll be retiring without any regrets after his fight against WBO 147lb champion Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley (33-1-1, 13 KOs) on April 9 in their fight on HBO PPV. Pacquiao still believes after eight months that he beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year in May in their “fight of the century” in Las Vegas, Nevada, and he says that many fans agree with him in thinking that he won that fight.

For many fans that have seen the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, they can’t understand what Pacquiao is talking about, because it seems so clear cut that Mayweather was the superior fighter throughout the contest. Pacquiao did fight Mayweather to a standstill in the first four rounds of the fight, but after the 4th, Mayweather stepped it up and boxed his way to an easy win in the last eight rounds of the fight.

“(Mayweather) retired already, so I’m going to retire also after this fight,” Pacquiao said via the AP at foxsports.com. “I never regret. In fact, I thought I won the fight [against Mayweather]. A lot of people, my fans, believe I won the fight. I know (it’s time to retire) because after this, I have another big responsibility in the Philippines, which is serving the people. My family wanted me to retire before I fought Mayweather. I started this boxing just to help my mother, and I’ll end my boxing career to help the country.”

Pacquiao seems like he’s in denial about what happened in the Mayweather fight.

If there’s anyone to blame for why a rematch between Mayweather and Pacquiao hasn’t taken place, it’s because of Pacquiao. If he would have just given Mayweather his props for having beaten him, and maybe done a little groveling, I think Mayweather would have given him a rematch by now. But the last thing a fighter or anyone wants is to have someone not admit when they’ve been beaten.

I’ve played a lot of basketball in my neighborhood over the years, and I never liked to play with people that wouldn’t admit when my team beat them. You’d hear the excuses afterwards. It just makes you not want to play with them after that. Mayweather said it himself that he sees Pacquiao as nothing but a poor sport who couldn’t admit when he’s been beaten.

“Did I text Stephen A. Smith and say I will fight him again? Yeah, but I change my mind,” said Mayweather to Showtime’s Jim Gray. “At this particular time, no, because he’s [Pacquiao] a sore loser and he’s a coward. If you lost, accept the loss and say, ‘Mayweather, you were the better fighter.’”

So it looks like Mayweather sees Pacquiao as not only a sore loser but also a coward. Like I was saying, I think Pacquiao blew it by not giving Mayweather credit for beating him, and not groveling a little to show that the better man had won the fight. I guess if you look at it from Pacquiao’s perspective, he was able to keep a lot of fans by not admitting that he was whipping by Mayweather. I don’t think Pacquiao’s legion of fans would have been able to stomach it if he admitted that Mayweather got the better of him. Never the less, by not admitting that Mayweather won the fight, I think it hurt Pacquiao more because he didn’t want to give him a rematch due to him seeing him as a sore loser who can’t admit when he’s been beaten.