Manny Pacquiao isn’t perfect, but I am comfortable saying as I have spoken to him several times that he is genuinely a nice guy.
He sees boxing as a job and is never disrespectful of his opponents. Rarely complains about anything and even when he was legitimately robbed in a fight with Tim Bradley he didn’t go nuts or anything, just shrug his shoulders and kept it moving.
He took the L from Marquez and didn’t make any excuses. He acknowledged he got careless and was caught with a monster shot. This is boxing and that happens to the best of them.
He went to the hospital as a precaution because he was unconscious for a good two minutes, but everything checked out medically. Afterwards he went back to his suite to watch a replay of the fight and if you can’t tell by these quotes he doesn’t seem that broken up about it.
After leaving the hospital, Pacquiao publicist Fred Sternburg said Pacquiao returned to his suite at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay for a family dinner followed by a DVD viewing of the fight.
Sternburg said that as the DVD played, Pacquiao jokingly announced, “Spoiler alert. I don’t think you are going to like how this ends.”
“First and foremost I would like to thank God for keeping Juan Manuel Marquez and me safe during our fight on Saturday night,” Pacquiao said in a statement. “I want to congratulate Juan Manuel. I have no excuses. It was a good fight and he deserved the victory. I think boxing fans who watched us were winners, too.
“To all my fans, I would like to thank you for your prayers and assure you that I am fine. I am looking forward to a nice rest and then I will be back to fight. On behalf of (my wife) Jinkee and our family we would like to wish everyone a joyous Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.”
Pacquiao has no plans to retire and while he isn’t the Pacquiao of old, he isn’t a shot fighter. As long as his health isn’t at risk I look forward to watching him fight again.