Time for Pacquiao to retire, says Hatton

HONG KONG (AFP) –

Former world boxing champion Ricky Hatton poses in Hong Kong on December 11, 2012. Hatton said on Tuesday that Manny Pacquiao should retire from boxing, after the 33-year-old Filipino was brutally knocked out in Las Vegas at the weekend.

Former world champion Ricky Hatton said on Tuesday that Manny Pacquiao should retire from boxing, after the 33-year-old Filipino was brutally knocked out in Las Vegas at the weekend.

The Briton, a former world light-welterweight and welterweight champion, was himself knocked out by Pacquiao in May 2009 in what was then only his second professional career loss. Hatton retired for a second time last month.

“The only advice I could give Manny Pacquiao is that his legacy is already secured,” Hatton, 34, told AFP during a visit to Hong Kong, where he is hoping to unearth Chinese boxing talent in his role as a promoter.

“The thing is with us fighters is that there is always one more fight,” said Hatton, who was knocked out in a failed return to the ring in November, in what he says was his last fight.

“What’s he (Pacquiao) going to achieve by having one more fight? Probably nothing. He’s an eight-weight world champion. There’s nothing more to be said.

“You’d like to see him go into retirement and spend some time with his family and be happy. He can’t do any more from a boxing point of view.”

Pacquiao, who turns 34 next week, is under intense pressure to hang up his gloves after he was floored by his great Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas on Saturday.

His wife Jinkee even made a tearful appeal on camera for her husband to quit the sport in the immediate aftermath of defeat. His mother Dionisia also made the same appeal after Pacquiao’s second loss in a row.

Hatton, who was defeated by Vyacheslav Senchenko in his ring return, was adamant that he would not be making another comeback.

“I won’t be fighting again,” he said. “I got what I wanted from my comeback even though it ended in a defeat. I needed to find out if I still had it, and I haven’t got it, and I can move on now.”