By Rob Smith: Former 8 division world champion Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) turns 34 today, Monday, December 17th, and his career seems to be floundering despite not being all that old. Pacquiao has lost his last two fights and was viciously knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez recently.
It wasn’t just a knockout, it was a devastating knockout that left Pacquiao face down on the canvas for 2 minutes, and that’s the worst way a fighter can be knocked out due to potential damage that can occur.
Pacquiao is 34, but you have call that an old 34 rather than a young one, because Pacquiao’s aggressive fighting style has caused him to get hit a lot in his fights. However, other than his two fights against Marquez at 147, Pacquiao hasn’t taken a lot of what you would call bad punishment in this weight class.
Pacquiao was able to dominate the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Joshua Clottey, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley and Tim Bradley. But just getting hit even a little in those fights can’t be a good thing for a small guy like Pacquiao, and it perhaps has led to Pacquiao wearing down recently.
Pacquiao says he wants to go three more years, which would take him to his 37th birthday but it’s going to take some adjustments from his promoter Bob Arum if he’s to make it that far without getting beaten a lot more.
Arum obviously wants the Pacquiao-Marquez 5 rematch because it’s going to be a huge moneymaker for all, but after that Arum needs to think about taking it easy with his fighter Pacquiao because he’s not going to make it another three years unless Arum really babies him by matching him against non-punchers like Bradley.
Pacquiao is a pretty good fighter still, but we still don’t know how he’ll perform after his bad knockout loss to Marquez.