Manny Pacquiao Beats Lucas Matthysse To Win WBA Welterweight Title
Manny Pacquiao has had a lower profile since losing to Floyd Mayweather in May of 2015, but he’s not done boxing. A year after losing a controversial decision to Jeff Horn in Australia, Pacquiao returned to the ring on July 15th in a match against Argentina’s Lucas Matthysse in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Matthysse came into the match with a record of 39-5 with 36 knockouts, so Pacquiao would have his hands full.
Well, maybe not. Pacquiao dominated the fight, winning on a TKO in the seventh round, after knocking down Matthysse for the third time. It was the first knockout of any kind for Pacquiao since he had a TKO over Michael Cotto in November 2009, 14 fights ago.
With the win, Pacquiao won the WBA Welterweight title. Pacquiao, 39, is far from finished, and while he didn’t speculate on any future fights, he’s also not retiring. One intriguing possibility is a match against WBO Welterweight champ Terence Crawford, who is 33-0 with 24 knockouts. Crawford’s last fight was in June when he beat Jeff Horn on a TKO.
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Manny Pacquiao can still fight in a very high level fight but it seems that he lost some steps compared when he was at his prime. Maybe he can still have two to three fights but he needs to be more careful and smarter. He will be 40 on December and when a fighter gets older, health is the biggest issue. We all know that at 40 boxer is already on the decline stage. He has nothing to prove because he was already a legend and he was once the face of the boxing. After a couple of fights maybe retirement is the best course of action.