Whether they get it depends on how serious Pacquiao is about walking away from the sport he loves and the spotlight that will be hard to leave behind.
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LAS VEGAS-Raising his arms to the chorus of deafening cheers as he took his final bow as champion wasn’t the best part of Manny Pacquiao’s Saturday night.
Pacquiao has banked more than £350m in career earnings and is the only boxer to have won 10 world titles in eight different weight divisions. “He was strong the entire fight”.
“I would like to see Canelo, he is too big for Manny, but I would like to see that fight”. The performance was on par with the best Pacquiao has looked since suffering a devastating KO loss at the hands of long time nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez back in late 2012.
Mayweather said he thought Bradley was winning the what turned out to be a pivotal seventh round until he was ruled the victim of a knockdown when his gloves touched the canvas after a half-punch, half-push by Pacquiao’s left.
When the final bell rang, it was apparent to both men – as well as the partisan crowd at the MGM – that Pacquiao had won the fight.
Sky Sports recalled that Roach rejected calls by his trainer Eddie Futch to retire and lost five of his last six fights before quitting the ring.. “He hasn’t missed a beat”.
When asked by a reporter whether it is more his family that wants him to retire, the boxer laughed. Senior network sources told the paper that HBO executives are hoping to avoid a bigger situation because Pacquiao announced he planned to retire after the Bradley fight.
Pacquiao is running for one of 12 available seats in the Philippines Senate. He never came close to finishing off Bradley, though he was so far ahead on the ringside scorecards that it didn’t matter.
Bradley acknowledged his second defeat against Pacquiao in their three fights.
For all their fury in the ring, the two fighters have a collegial relationship. “But he will soon”, Roach said.
“In my heart I’m 50-50”. “I remember when I started boxing here in America in 2001”. But Pacquiao seemed to have pulled his opponent down.
Pacquiao said his right shoulder, which he injured in the fourth round of his 2015 fight with Floyd Mayweather, didn’t bother him. Then he also added that he would be very thankful for being a retired man, serving people and helping people. “I know that I can still fight”. A Pacquiao left slipped past Bradley’s defense and knocked him to the floor.
Manny Pacquiao, right, of the Philippines, hits Timothy Bradley during their WBO welterweight title boxing bout Saturday, April 9, 2016, in Las Vegas.
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The 37-year-old floored Bradley twice in their epic welterweight fight, eventually coning out a comfortable victor by unanimous decision.
