Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao 62-8-2 (39) has officially announced he is hanging up the gloves.
In an extraordinary professional career spanning more than 26 years, Pacquiao has boxed in four different decades and held a version of the world title in all of them.
The Philippines senator recently announced he will be running for president next year. The move seemed to inform the 42-year-old southpaw’s decision to retire from the ring.
“As I hang up my boxing gloves, I would like to thank the whole world, especially the Filipino people for supporting Manny Pacquiao. Goodbye boxing,” Pacquiao said in a 14-minute video posted on his Facebook page.
“It is difficult for me to accept that my time as a boxer is over. Today I am announcing my retirement.”
The eight-division world champion was last in action in August when he dropped a unanimous decision to WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas 27-4 (12) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada by scores of 113-115 and 112-116 twice.
In that fight Pacquiao looked surprisingly static, failing to use his legs to launch his trademark buzzsaw attack. After the fight Pacquiao blamed leg cramps. Other chalked up the loss to father time.
Pacquiao grew up in abject poverty in General Santos in the Philippines.
“There was no hospital, pharmacy, doctor, or nurse within any reasonable distance from where my family lived,” he wrote in his 2010 autobiography ‘Pacman’. “We were poor, very poor.”
One night his father came home drunk and after an argument with the young Pacquiao, killed his dog. Then he ate it, says Pacquiao.
“He killed my dog,” Pacquiao wrote in his autobiography. “He took the puppy I found and killed it. To a young boy, that was unforgivable — it was stealing something I loved, which is far more terrible than stealing money.”
“Manny ran away from home after his father ate his dog,” said Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s longtime trainer.
Despite living on the streets, Pacquiao found his way to the gym and picked up the gloves. The sport not only saved his life, it made him very rich.
“Thank you for changing my life, when my family was desperate, you gave us hope, you gave me the chance to fight my way out of poverty,” Pacquiao said in the video. “Because of you, I was able to inspire people all over the world.
“Because of you I have been given the courage to change more lives. I will never forget what I have done and accomplished in my life that I can’t imagine. I just heard the final bell. The boxing is over.”
Pacquiao won his first world title at flyweight when he knocked out Chatchai Sasakul to claim the WBC belt in Thailand in 1998. But it wasn’t until his breakthrough win over South African great Lehlo Ledwaba for the IBF super bantamweight title in his US debut that his star really started to shine.
Drafted in as a late replacement, expert opinion saw it as an easy fight for Ledwaba. Instead, Pacquiao blitzed the long-reigning champion to stop him in six. Boxing powerbrokers sat up and took notice.
Memorable rivalries followed as Pacquaio steadily moved through the weight classes. There was the trilogy against Erik Morales, the pair of fights against Marco Antonio Barrera and off course the four-fight series against Juan Manuel Marquez.
For a time, Pacquiao was fondly referred to as ‘The Mexecutioner’.
Other big names that fell to Pacquiao include Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley and Tim Bradley.
Pacquiao was one half of the most lucrative boxing match in history when he clashed with undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr in May 2015 in a bout billed as the ‘Fight of the Century’. Pacquiao lost on points, but as he had done throughout his career, he dusted himself off and got back in the ring, claiming the WBO bauble from Jessie Vargas 18 months later.
In July 2017, Pacquiao lost his WBO welterweight belt to Australian Jeff Horn. Many thought it was the end. But Pacquiao bounced back to defeat previously undefeated American Keith Thurman for the WBA strap two years later.
Although he slowed down somewhat later in his career, Pacquiao showed he still had enough to not only mix it with the best, but to beat most of them.
Now he has retired, you can expect to see Pacquiao inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the coming years.
