The mixed messages from Manny Pacquiao’s camp mean it is very difficult to feel confident that Saturday night’s third meeting with Timothy Bradley will be the last we see of him in the ring.
A clearly conflicted Pacquiao is talking retirement, but the two other great influences on his career – promoter Bob Arum and trainer Freddie Roach – aren’t so sure.
History tells us their scepticism is justified. Boxing is littered with examples of fighting men hanging up the gloves only to return to the one life they know best. But whether this is indeed the 37-year-old’s last hurrah, the end of a legendary career is close, and it should rightly be celebrated.
Pacquiao’s story can be divided into four chapters with the middle two providing some of the greatest fights of recent times. And in them he did more to strengthen boxing’s mass appeal and attract new fans to the sport than any of his peers – even Floyd Mayweather.
While the American flirted with retirement, served jail time or just remained inactive, Manny was fighting three times a year and through boundless aggression, innate bravery – dashed with just the right measure of vulnerability – always gave value for money.
The heavyweights were in hibernation and Pacman was at the vanguard of the smaller men, eventually establishing the welterweights as boxing’s glamour division.
But that was a long way from the first part the Filipino’s tale, where a skinny kid dragged himself from almost unimaginable poverty and discovered his talent – the riches that lay ahead only existing in his wildest dreams.
Manny Pacquiao weighs in at 145.5, Tim Bradley at 146.5 before their fight tomorrow. (via @danrafaelespn) pic.twitter.com/1ateqxzEFw
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 8, 2016
The second chapter started with his arrival in America in 2001 when, as a late replacement and virtual unknown, he destroyed Lehlo Ledwaba to win the IBF super-bantamweight title in his very first fight stateside.
That was also his first bout with Roach in his corner and so began one of the all-time great fighter/trainer relationships. Over the next seven years he became the dominant force from 122-135 pounds as he established himself as a staple on HBO and a huge favourite with US fight fans.
He also became the scourge of Mexico and the four-way rivalry between him, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez produced endless drama – the perfect fusion of high technical skill, furious action and extreme courage.
No less than three Ring Magazine Fights of the Year came from bouts between this quartet. Despite the superstardom that was to follow, this is how many hardcore boxing fans will remember Pacquiao – beating the highly-respected Barrera with improbable ease, losing and then emphatically avenging defeat to Morales, and his rollercoaster scraps with bogeyman Marquez, his true nemesis, whose ringcraft and surgical counter-punching always gave him so much trouble.
The third chapter of the Pacman story began with his incredible jump to welterweight and pummelling the world’s most popular boxer, the Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya, into retirement. Decisive victories over Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley followed as he defied logic to repeatedly brutalise bigger men.
And thus rumours of doping surfaced – some promulgated by the Mayweather camp as he continued to avoid the Filipino – but Pacquiao has never failed a test.
And while his spectacular achievements suggest otherwise, Manny is mortal and the fourth part of his story is one of decline.
He was robbed by a decision against Bradley in 2012 for his first loss in seven years but maybe that was a turning point. He was knocked out by Marquez in his next fight and although he returned to winning ways, the ringworn Pacquiao who finally shared a ring with Mayweather last May should not be the version that we remember.
The apathy surrounding Saturday night’s fight is perhaps both a backlash from his meagre efforts that night and an inevitable reflection of his diminishing powers. But his place among the all-time greats was assured long before his anti-climactic showdown with Mayweather.
Pacquiao was always entertaining, always explosive and impossibly brave. He beat the odds in life, and in boxing.
Mayweather might have been the finest boxer of this generation – but Pacquiao has been its best fighter.
