With only a few weeks away from Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley II, there is a question that is almost as important as the result of their rematch. Can Manny Pacquiao come back stronger than ever? The images of Manny Pacquiao being stopped by Juan Manuel Marquez last year in Nevada shocked the boxing world, as Pac-Man had almost reached a status in boxing as a type of super-human who was indestructible was suddenly revealed to be just a mere human. There has been a few calls for the Filipino boxer/politician to retire, which weren’t well received.
This isn’t going to be a shocking conclusion as the career of Manny Pacquiao has become on of boxing’s most famous 21st century story. To see a boxer go up the weight divisions, getting faster and seemingly punching harder seemed to go against one of boxing’s laws of nature. This law of boxing nature that when a boxer goes up in weight, they get slower and their punches no longer dispatch their opponents like they used to. Besides some unsubstantiated accusations about some illegal practices to gain an advantage over his opponents, the boxing community has looked at wonder at Manny Pacquiao’s excellent career.
Yet after a few bouts in which Pac-Man wasn’t his usual fast fisted, continuously attacking self, a few murmurs about Manny Pacquiao entering a terminal decline when it came to his boxing career was mentioned. When the Filipino lost to Timothy Bradley by SD in 2012, this murmur turned into a loud bombardment of shouting. The people who mentioned the possibility of this being just a bad result for the Filipino were easily out shouted by the “Retire now” brigade whose ranks seemed to be in the majority.
The above brigade surely had Manny Pacquiaos’ best interest at heart as nobody likes to see a boxer who is past their prime get battered around a boxing ring, for boxing’s history is littered with them. Yet I and numerous others came to another conclusion: Perhaps Manny Pacquiaos’ loss will be a kick up the proverbial for the multiple weight champion This is not to say that Manny has under-trained or hadn’t gave enough in his boxing career, as by all accounts the Filipino is a tireless worker in the gym and doesn’t cut any corners.
But Manny Pacquiao was suffering from too much boxing success. I know that the last sentence sounds stupid to the point of scratching your head, but I will elaborate on what I mean. Surely if you defeat your opponents with seemingly little difficulty, like Pacquiao did from the period of when he defeated Oscar de la Hoya to against Timothy Bradley, a type of boredom would start to creep in a boxers mind? So with a loss, that Manny would surely want to change into a win, Pac-Man will in all likelihood enter the ring against Timothy Bradley in April of 2014 with some extra fire in his belly.
Whether Manny Pacquiao metamorphosis back to the incredibly fast boxer that helped to create his popularity or if his temporary decline is in fact a permanent one, will be closer to an answer on April 12th 2014.
