LOSING IS FAR FROM PACQUIAO'S MIND
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 12 Apr 2014
LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Manny Pacquiao laughed off World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Timothy Bradley's pronouncement he will send the Filipino into retirement on Saturday when they meet in their much-awaited rematch at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
"What? Bradley to retire me? Oh no, please give me a break," Pacquiao said Thursday by way of reacting to Bradley's statement made during Wednesday's final press conference. "I don't know, but if I'm going to hang my gloves, it will be my own and my team's decision, no by anybody else."
"If he meant I'll lose again in this rematch that would pave the way to end my fighting career, baka hindi nya narinig ang sinabi ko sa pagsisimula ng aking training camp, that my preparations is focused on me winning the fight and and win back the title. Nothing else," the 35-year-old quipped. "Losing is far from my and my team's mind from the time the Pacquiao-Bradley 2 was announced."
"So, this debate about my retirement is a rather premature proposition," he stressed. "I would not have trained long and hard, one of my longest and hardest in my career if I can't win. No, as I have been saying, my journey is not yet finished and I do not intend to break that."
The only man to win four lineal championships reiterated the issue on his retirement has long been subject of debate and, therefore, not new to him.
"Matagal nang pinag-uusapan yan. Sinabi na yan nang matalo ako kay (Juan Manuel) Marquez. Then when my fight with (Brandon) Rios was annonuced, Nabuhay uli ang usap-usapang yan," he said. "Sanay na ako dyan, kaya tigilan na natin at mag-concentrate na lang tayo sa preparasyson. Dalawang araw na lang laban na eh."
"As you in media have been saying, my Saturday fight is a make-or-break for me and my career, so why should I allow myself beaten? No way! the eight-division champion stressed.
To add fire to Bradley's statement, his trainer Joel Diaz joined in the fray saying in his turn to speak, "That's what we're here for. I think this is Manny Pacquiao's end. Like everything in life, everything has a beginning and there's an end."
"Let's just see what happens when we meet anew on Saturday," Pacquiao remarked. "As I have been saying, I have been preparing hard for this fight, precisely, to prove to all and sundry that I am not yet washed up like some people are saying. That I still have the strength the speed and the power that catapulted me to the no. 1 in the list of pound-for-pound."
"Doon na rin nya ipakita na kailangan na akong mag-retire," he dared. Pacquiao and Bradley will face each other for the second time following the the latter's highly disputable split decision victory in their first encounter June 9, 2012, which almost the entire boxing community thought the Filipino ring icon won.
By the end of that year, the Pacman again lost to arch-enemy Juan Manuel Marquez in an embarrassing sixth round knockout that even his loved ones, particularly his mother and wife Jinkee asked him to consider retiring.
Photo: Pacquiao works out at the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas Thursday. Photo by Wendell Rupert Alinea.
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