Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino multiple world champion who turned 40 last month, said on Wednesday that while he is focused on his title defence against Adrien Broner, he has considered life beyond the ring.
The WBA "regular" welterweight champion knows he will have his hands full when he battles the hard-hitting Broner in Las Vegas on Jan. 19 and is not lining up fighters down the road.
“At the age of 40, it’s hard to think about future fights,” he told Reuters. “Just one at a time.”
He dismissed concerns that he has lost the knockout power that made the “PacMan” the sport’s only eight-division world champion and among the best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
After a knockout drought, Pacquiao had a return to form in July when he stunned defending champion Lucas Matthysse with a seventh-round knockout in Kuala Lumpur to claim the title.
“I still have it,” said the soft-spoken Pacquiao, who is 60-7-2 with 39 knockouts in his career.
“God is good,” he said with a smile. Well if God wants me to be, then why not?” he said when asked whether he would like the position. But I’m not thinking about that now. My legacy is already there. I want to be an inspiration to the fans and the people not only inside the ring but also outside the ring.”
One place you won’t find Pacquiao is in exhibition matches like the one his former rival Floyd Mayweather fought last month against Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa — a one-sided win that was widely panned.
Mayweather dropped Nasukawa three times before the contest was waved off in the first two minutes of round one. Nasukawa, only 20 years old, had no experience as a boxer.
“I won’t do that. If I’m Floyd I wouldn’t do that,” he said. “Exhibition match where you just knock him out. That’s not good for the fans.”
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