By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao sent out a surprising Tweet on Thursday to UFC star Conor McGregor, wishing him a happy Thanksgiving. The post by Pacquiao immediately has sent shockwaves through the boxing world with many fans believing the 38-year-old former 8 division world champion Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) is trying to line himself up for a big money fight against the UFC star.
Pacquiao already fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015, and made a huge amount of money in that fight. Since then, however, the arguably stale match-making that has been done for Pacquiao by his promoters at Top Rank has done little to keep his career moving in the first lane.
Put in a situation where he had to fight his last contest in Australian Jeff Horn’s home country of Brisbane, Australia, Pacquiao found himself on the receiving end of a good old fashioned controversial decision. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach wants him to retire, but it doesn’t look like he’s interested in doing so.
It was an odd tweet for Pacquiao to be sending out. McGregor isn’t from the U.S, so Thanksgiving likely wouldn’t be a holiday that he would normally celebrate in his native Ireland.
“Happy thanksgiving! Stay fit my friend. # realboxingmatch #2018,” said Pacquiao on his Twitter.
It’s unlikely McGregor will go for the idea of fighting Pacquiao if he’s still waiting on a rematch with Mayweather. By the end of 2018, if Mayweather hasn’t made his intentions known about whether he wants to return to the ring for a rematch with the Irish fighter, then it wouldn’t be surprising if McGregor takes Pacquiao up on the offer. I don’t know how many boxing and MMA fans will be interested in seeing Pacquiao vs. McGregor by that point.
Oscar De La Hoya has already called out McGregor, asking him for a fight and promising to KO him within 2 rounds. McGregor has completely ignored De La Hoya’s call out, which is a pretty big hint that he’s not interested in that fight. In the past, McGregor has been willing to entertain the retired Paulie Malignaggi in talking of wanting to fight him possibly. In De La Hoya’s case, McGregor hasn’t made any remarks about that fight.
Some believe that McGregor is holding out hope that he’ll be able to get a rematch with Mayweather in 2018. Mayweather was seen recently working out at his Las Vegas Mayweather gym, and it’s thought that he’ll be coming back for a second fight against McGregor. However, if that fight fails to happen, McGregor would do well if he could face Pacquiao while the interest is still there on his part.
Pacquiao still isn’t retired from boxing, and he’s only been out of the ring for the last 5 months. McGregor vs. Pacquiao would probably gain a lot of attention if the fight got made. Pacquiao might have to do the leg work to get the fight put together if his promoter Bob Arum is resistant to the idea.
Arum didn’t make the Pacquiao vs. Amir Khan Fight despite Manny preferring that match over the Horn fight. In hindsight, Pacquiao should have rejected fighting Horn once it was clear that he would need to fight him in Australia. Going to Horn’s hometown to fight him was asking for trouble. I could see a lot of promoters not letting that happen. I don’t know why Arum did.
“I think it’s a good time for him to retire right now,” said Roach to Fighthype in talking about Miguel Cotto. “I kind of wish Manny Pacquiao would follow his lead and retire also. Being a professional boxer and a senator at the same time is very difficult. He still wants a couple of more fights. He’s doing a good job as a senator right now, but not as a boxer,” said Roach.
With the lack of support Pacquiao is getting from his trainer Freddie Roach to continue his boxing career, it might be a good idea for Manny to find another trainer that will stick with him and not abandon ship after his recent loss to Horn. That should have been a win for Pacquiao in the view of this writer. The scoring was bad, and the lack of control by the referee was even worse. Horn was fouling Pacquiao left and right with his head-butting, shoving and head-locks. The referee could have taken off a lot of points from Horn. Pacquiao would have won the fight had the referee penalized Horn.