HOW sad Manny Pacquiao, who turned 40 last month and has earned £350million in the ring, is still fighting because he badly needs the money.
Pacquiao will climb through the ropes for the 70th time when he defends his WBA (Regular) world welterweight title against Adrien Broner at the MGM Grand Arena, Las Vegas, tomorrow night.
Manny, given his age and remarkable achievements as an eight-division world champion, is regarded as one of boxing’s priceless antiques.
But antiques stand the test of time — I’m afraid fighters don’t.
As he approaches his 44th championship battle, it’s hardly a revelation he’s no longer the razor-sharp machine that electrified fans with his southpaw skills, speed and power.
Pacman has entered that highly dangerous domain when the middle aged mistakenly believe they are still the equal of the young bloods.
He should be concentrating on his political career as a congressman in the Philippines parliament.
President Rodrigo Duterte has already made it known he intends to make him his successor in 2022.
“When I stopped boxing, nobody loved me.”
They are worthy sentiments but not the real reason he carries on.
Manny isn’t exactly broke but he has a cash-flow problem because he is an over-generous philanthropist.
Unlike bitter rival Floyd Mayweather Jnr, he hasn’t frittered away vast sums of money on private jets and fleets of luxury cars, or weighed himself down beneath armfuls of diamond-encrusted jewellery.
Manny has given away the bulk of his fortune to his country’s poor.
His fellow Filipinos don’t just idolise him because he is one of the all-time great fighters.
The dad-of-five grew up in extreme poverty. That’s the motivating force that drives him to provide aid to the starving and homeless.
He ignores the obvious that the longer he continues, the greater the risk to his own health and well- being.
Manny is 1-3 favourite to beat Broner, despite his challenger being 11 years younger and a former four-weight division world champion.
It would be a blessing if he loses, because only defeat would make him see sense and quit.
Bad-boy Broner is such an obnoxious character I doubt anyone, apart from his family, will rejoice if his hand is raised in victory.
The Problem has fathered seven children by six different women and is as much at home in a prison cell as he is in the gym.
He has committed a long list of offences that includes illegal possession of a weapon, domestic violence, witness intimidation, assault and robbery.
Pacquiao has stubbornly denied to acknowledge the passage of time.
But he should heed the words of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who said: “Nothing makes you look older than attempting to look young.”
Source – The sun UK