FILIPINO BOXING ICON Manny Pacquiao vowed to “rise again” as he flew home today after a brutal knock-out defeat that prompted some fans and experts to urge him to retire.
“Don’t worry, we will rise again,” he told well-wishers as arrived in Manila from the United States, where he suffered his second consecutive loss with a sixth-round knock-out by Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday.
Pacquiao, who has 54 wins, five defeats and two draws in nearly 18 years in the pro ring, had lost his World Boxing Organization welterweight crown in June on a controversial points decision to unbeaten US fighter Timothy Bradley.
But retirement appeared far from the mind of Pacquiao, who turns 34 on Monday and was once regarded as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter.
“I watched a replay of my fight and I am satisfied with my movement,” said Pacquiao. ”I was fighting very well from the first to the sixth round. I was moving well. It was just that I got hit with a lucky punch on the last second of the round.”
Pacquiao, who on Wednesday also announced he was donating 10 million peso ($187,000) to the victims of a typhoon which devastated the country’s south last week, said he had been looking to finish off Marquez by the eighth round.
“The way the fight was going, there was no way it would have reached the 12th round,” he said.
He cited how he had broken the Mexican’s nose, leaving him with breathing difficulties that Pacquiao claimed had forced his foe to remove his mouthpiece at one point. But Pacquiao acknowledged: “He owned that night. Let’s give him due credit.”
