Boxer Manny Pacquiao Retires – The New York Times

MANILA — Filipino boxing prodigy Manny Pacquiao announced his retirement on Wednesday, a month later. he lost Cuban middleweight Yordenis Ugas at the championship game in Las Vegas.

Pacquiao, 42, led an amazing 26-year career in which he won world titles in a record eight weight classes. He will finish his career with a record of 62 wins, 8 losses and 2 draws, and he will achieve 39 of these wins by knockout. One of boxing’s greatest draws since the 2000s, Pacquiao was trying to become the first boxer to win a championship in four different decades in a match against Ugas.

Making his professional debut in 1995, Pacquiao served in the Philippine Senate and recently bid for the presidency. As a politician, he is openly at enmity with the current president of the country. Rodrigo DuterteHis six-year term expires next year.

“It’s hard for me to accept that my time as a boxer is over,” Pacquiao said. 15 minute video on the Facebook page. “Today I am announcing my retirement.”

“I never thought this day would come. As I close my boxing gloves, I want to thank the whole world, especially the Filipino people, who supported Manny Pacquiao.”

“Goodbye boxing,” he said.

said Pacquiao He was considering retiring in 2016. he left boxing but returned that year, also to his longtime manager Rod Nazario, with Freddie Roach, who organized Pacquiao’s first international fight in the United States twenty years ago and will coach him on Pacquiao’s path to stardom. Thank you for introducing me.

“Freddie Roach was not only my coach, but also my family, my brother and my friend,” he said.

“Who would have thought that Manny Pacquiao would win 12 major world titles in eight different weight categories?” ‘ Pacquiao asked. “Even I marvel at what I’ve done.”

Pacquiao is the Philippines’ best-known athlete and can assist him in his presidential candidacy. The Philippine Constitution forbids Duterte from seeking a second term. To get around this, he said he would do it instead. run for vice president.

Duterte is expected to back his party’s longtime aide, Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, as a presidential candidate. Analysts say that if both men win, Go could resign to allow Duterte to step up as leader, or let Duterte rule by proxy.