Pacquiao congratulates Marquez, says he'll be back next year, CT scan negative

Manny Pacquiao is taking last night's knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez well publicly, as he released a brief statement following a CT scan (negative) last night after the fight.

"First and foremost I would like to thank God for keeping Juan Manuel Marquez and me safe during our fight on Saturday night. I want to congratulate Juan Manuel. I have no excuses. It was a good fight and he deserved the victory. I think boxing fans who watched us were winners, too.

"To all my fans, I would like to thank you for your prayers and assure you that I am fine. I am looking forward to a nice rest and then I will be back to fight. On behalf of Jinkee and our family we would like to wish everyone a joyous Christmas and a happy and healthy new year."

Pacquiao vs Marquez: Recap / Highlight Video / KO GIF

Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO) will almost surely be back next year as he says here, but there remains the outside chance he'll simply decide to move on from boxing. I have a hard time believing that he'll want to leave the sport with that kind of loss as his final moment, but there's a good argument that he's got so much awaiting him in boxing retirement, that he should at least strongly consider retiring.

Whatever he decides to do, he deserves the rest for now, and a chance to think about his boxing future, which he's going to take.