Manny Pacquiao says he has to beat Floyd Mayweather before retiring

The eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao, who currently holds the WBO Welterweight Championship belt, has rejected all rumours which suggested that perhaps he will walk away from the sport without fighting his archrival Floyd Mayweather junior.

The Filipino star, also known as Pac-Man, recently had an interview with boxing legend ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, in which he revealed that he will fight the undefeated American legend before hanging up his gloves because his kids wants him to do so.

“You know my family want me to retire, especially my mom, my family and also my kids, “The WBO champion told sugarrayleonard.com.

“But the request of most of my kids, who are 11 years old, 10, and 5, and 3 and speak English because they’ve started in international school – so they talk to me in English. The request is, ‘Daddy, I want you to retire, but before you retire I have one request.’ ‘What is that?’ ‘You need to fight Floyd Mayweather and beat him and that’s that.'”

Pacquiao is currently set to take on Timothy Bradley, the current WBC Light Welterweight Champion, on June 9 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The five-division world champion and the current WBC Welterweight Champion, Mayweather, on the other hand will lock horns with Miguel Cotto, the reigning WBA (Super) Light Middleweight Champion, on May 5 at the same venue.

However, the problem is that the 35-year-old Mayweather, who holds an incredible record of winning all of his 42 professional fights, with 26 of his wins coming by the way of a knockout, is moving to 154lbs, where Pacquiao has specified that he is no longer willing to tread.

So, keeping these facts in front, it is fair to say that if a fight between these two pound-for-pound kings takes place, it will have to be somewhere around the summer of 2013.

Nevertheless, it has to be kept in mind that in order to set up this dream fight both Mayweather and Pacquiao will have to beat their opponents, as otherwise whole scenario will get change.

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Posted by Imran Shaukat Khan on Apr 20 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.