TIME FOR PACQUIAO TO RETIRE?

There is no doubt in my mind that Manny Pacquiao won against Australian Jeff Horn. The CompuBox statistics showed Pacquiao landing 182 punches vs. Horn’s 92, with 123 power punches against the 73 of Horn, plus 59 jabs finding their mark vs. Horn’s 19. Horn was also on the verge of being ko’d in the 9th round and his face was a mess.

I think Horn’s victory was a hometown decision, which the judges figured they could rationalize based on the impression of more aggressiveness on the part of the Australian, and the flurries of blows he delivered, even if mostly on Pacquiao’s arms.

But even if Pacquiao had been declared the winner, I would still have the same opinion of him, which is that his glory days are over. It will be downhill from now on.

Pacquiao did not display the speed and the ferocity that he showed in pummeling Oscar de la Joya, Antonio Margarito, and Miguel Cotto. And he did not have the power and the timing that flattened Eric Morales and Ricky Hatton.

Most of all, Pacquiao did not manifest the hunger for victory that he had when he upset Marco Antonio Barrera on his way to becoming the toast of the boxing world.

That was in November 2003 — almost 13 and a half years ago. Pacquiao was a young warrior in his mid 20s. Last Sunday, he was an ancient 38-year-old.

It was Horn who displayed the characteristics of a hungry fighter, willing to take risks in order to deliver a solid blow. In the 9th round, when Horn was obviously unsteady and hurt, Pacquiao did not even display the killer instinct that left Cotto, De la Joya, and Margarito looking like the victims of a back alley mugging. In Pacquiao’s prime, Horn would have been clobbered mercilessly. Not last Sunday. And so, Horn survived and won.

Maybe even trainer Freddie Roach had begun to take it easy too, perhaps underestimating the Australian. In Pacquiao’s bouts against Margarito and Cotto, Roach warned his ward about being caught against the ropes. He instructed Pacquiao to move to the center of the ring the moment he felt his back touching the ropes. In his bout with Brandon Rios, Pacquiao used remarkable footwork to evade Rios’s heavy artillery as Rios tried to corner him on the ropes. The Mexican- American was left confused and frustrated.

Against Horn, Pacquiao kept leaning against the ropes, allowing Horn to throw a flurry of punches. Although most of those blows landed on Pacquiao’s arms, they must have been impressive enough for the judges to rationalize their inexplicable scores.

But so much for Pacquiao as a boxer. Whether or not he has a return bout with Horn, his place in boxing’s pantheon of pugilistic immortals is assured. It will take a long time, if at all, for another boxer to claim eight division championships.

While his fans have echoed the advice that Pacquiao should retire, my social media comment took a different slant. I said that, Pacquiao the boxer, having once again suffered the pain of an unjust and unfair decision, will hopefully realize, as Pacquiao the senator, the pain experienced by the families of EJK victims who have been subjected to unjust and unfair decisions by him and his colleagues in the Senate.

And I added, for good measure, “I hope he tells Dick Gordon that.”

Why does a decent, humble, likeable, disciplined, principled, dedicated athlete like Pacquiao become a sycophantic and amoral politician? What is it about political power that makes a Mr. Hyde out of a Dr. Jekyll?