Manny Pacquiao was in the house on Saturday night, to watch the heavily hyped fight between Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, and the body shot KO Garcia suffered brought back painful memories for the living legend. It was, as his many fans know, back in September of 1999 when Pac Man was knocked out by a body shot from Medgoen Singsurat. In that fight, a weigh-drained Pacquiao, still many years from reaching his peak, was stopped in the third round.
Pacquiao was hugely upset after the loss, vowing that he would never allow his body to fail him again in a fight. Pacquiao went on a brutal training regime designed to strengthen his body. Pac Man, as we know, was never again stopped by a body shot.
Now, the all-time great says Ryan Garcia needs to follow his lead and strengthen his midsection as he carries on with his own career and attempts to regroup from the loss to Tank.
“It was a good fight, but we need more development from Garcia. He’s still young,” Pacquiao told Fight Hub TV. “He should strengthen his body and also learn more technique. That’s what he needs. He has the skill of boxing but he needs to improve it.”
This is what everyone is now asking, though – CAN Garcia come back? Can he improve his game? Indeed, can Garcia strengthen his body? Some harsher critics are still insisting Garcia quit in the fight on Saturday, that he could have gotten up from that 7th round body shot but chose to remain on a knee as the ref tolled ten. Again, this is incredibly harsh. That shot from Tank was perfectly placed and it’s possible almost all fighters would have been taken out by the punch.
It’s up to you and your opinion. But moving on, Garcia says he will be fighting at 140 pounds, this a natural weight for him. Can Garcia win big fights at 140, can he in fact become the man at that weight? Great fighters like Manny Pacquiao can come back from a stoppage loss, or even from more than one stoppage loss. But can Garcia? Does Garcia have it in him to become a great of the sport?
As for Pacquiao’s immediate future, he told Fight Hub that he will be boxing an exhibition later this year. Whether Manny returns for a real fight remains to be seen, but there has been a good deal of talk in this regard. As is always the case, Pac Man looked in shape on Saturday, not too much above his fighting weight.
