Crying Pacquiao 'let Philippine fans down'
Philippine boxing hero Manny Pacquiao shed tears on national
television Monday, saying he had let his country down in his devastating
knockout loss to his great Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez.
"The low morale, the sadness, I accept that. This is my job.... But
the reaction of the Filipinos, the many who cried, especially my family,
it really hurts me," he said in an interview on the GMA network.
The former eight-division world champion wiped tears from his eyes
listening to his wife, Jinkee, make a tearful appeal on camera for his
husband, who turns 34 next week, to hang up his gloves. "When you see
your husband get hurt, you cannot even sleep," she said in the
interview, conducted in the United States after Saturday's Las Vegas
bout.
Asked if she wanted her husband to retire from boxing, she said: "You
know the answer to that. He knows what I am asking him". Pacquiao's
mother Dionisia made a separate appeal on the same station.
"I have long asked you son, it is time to retire because you started
boxing at such a young age. I always pray that he will stop. I asked God
to tell my son to stop," she said. She said she was alarmed by her son's
knock-out at the hands of Marquez in the sixth round of their non-title
fight Saturday night local time in Las Vegas.
The loss stunned a huge Philippine audience watching the fight live
on television on Sunday.
"I was shocked yesterday. The way he suddenly fell," said Pacquiao's
mother, who added that, like in previous bouts, she had only watched a
recording because she could not bear to watch her son's fights live. But
while moved by the women's entreaties, Pacquiao remained non-committal
on calls for his retirement.
AFP
|