Change Or Retire

As the Philippines mourned the loss of Manny Pacquiao to Juan Manuel Marquez, questions are already been asked about the next move of Pacman. The Filipino superstar himself has indicated that he intend to continue on boxing, with another rematch against Marquez on the card.

I am with the group that says he should retire.

Pacquiao is financially stable and is also a congressman in the Philippines but that’s not why I say he should retire. I think he should retire because frankly, he’s no longer the boxer he once was.

This loss to Marquez is the second in the row for Pacquiao. Earlier this year, he suffered a controversial defeat to Tim Bradley. Although I thought he won the fight against Bradley, I wasn’t surprised by the decision. Most of the rounds in that bout were very close and it was never as lopsided as many people think. The thing is; I think many of his rivals now understand how to fight Pacquiao.

Pacquiao is a fighter. He launches a constant barrage of punches against his opponents and basically wears them down. As he got older, Pacquiao is no longer able to keep up the pace he once had and is no longer able to maintain the barrage of punches needed to wear opponents down. Also as fatigue sets in, he now misses a lot of his punches.

It’s the same with all athletes. As they got older, they have to change or tweak their game to suit their changing body. Michael Jordon relied on his turnaround jumper in the twilight of his career; Roger Federer now tries to finish points quickly; even the greats do it. Pacquiao has not. He’s still fighting the same way as he did 5-10 years ago and that’s the problem.

I can understand why he want another shot at Marquez, Pacquiao has beaten Marquez in their previous 3 fights (correctly I might add), and he do not want to retire with such a loss on his record. However if Pacquiao want to continue fighting, then he will need to change his all-attack style. If not, then he need to retire because Marquez (or whoever his next opponent is) will beat him again.