Roach to have ‘a long talk’ with Pacquiao about retirement

Manny Pacquiao didn’t appear at a post-fight press conference for the first time since he got knocked out cold by Juan Manuel Marquez several years ago. Instead Manny was getting his head sewn up, closing two big gashes in his scalp from accidental headbutts that left him a bloody mess (Pacquiao would need 8 sutures on the left side, and 9 on the right).

But in the fallout of Pacquiao’s surprising defeat to Jeff Horn over the weekend, Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach says he’s going to have to have a serious discussion about the possibility of retirement with his fighter, who didn’t perform up to expectations, as reported by RingTV.

“I’m gonna have a long talk with him about that. Because I think maybe being a senator, being a fighter, both is maybe too much,” said Roach.

“I’m gonna give him my feelings on this because I’m a little bit in the middle because he didn’t fight badly, he did well in some of the rounds. He just wasn’t consistent enough for what I want.”

Roach didn’t call the unanimous decision loss a robbery, but rather acknowledged that it was a close fight while lamenting that Pacquiao was unable on close the show once he had Horn reeling in the ninth round. That opened up the Pandora’s box that is official scoring from ringside judges.

So while Roach sort of hopes there’s a rematch to settle this issue, he’s not so certain if it’ll happen.