Manny Pacquiao Says God Has Told Him to Retire, Promising Major Religious Announcement

Manny Pacquiao says that God has told him to retire from boxing in a radio interview in the Philippines. (Well, Pacquiao said it in the radio interview - God did not get on the radio and tell Manny to retire.) He's also promising a "major announcement on a religious note later this month," according to the Inquirer:

"I will not stay long in boxing because He said: ‘You have done enough. You have made yourself famous but this is harmful.' ... Pacquiao, 33, said he had the dream earlier this year but declined to reveal how many more fights he would contest before stepping down.

Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports talked to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum about the subject, and Arum basically said he has no idea if Pacquiao is seriously considering retirement or not.

All of this religious talk from Pacquiao this year has, whether coincidental or not, come alongside accusations of housing a fugitive and criminal tax charges filed against him in the Philippines.

But it seems like just before every Pacquiao fight, this talk of exactly how many fights he has left starts up, and it's always "not many," anywhere from two to four usually. To date, there's been no serious declarations from Manny (and I don't think this one is all that serious either, God dream or not), and he hasn't "retired" three (or however many) times the way Floyd Mayweather has done in the last few years, either. He fights pretty much the consistent schedule every year: One in the spring, one in the fall, and on to the next two.

We'll see. Pacquiao faces Timothy Bradley on June 9 in Las Vegas.