The decision of eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao not to compete in the Rio de Janiero Olympic Games from August 6 to 21 has been welcomed all around.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who has been a major influence in Pacquiao?s career, welcomed the decision and told The Standard, ?he followed good advice. It could have been terrible seeing him beat up 17 year old kids.?
The leading promoter in the world told us ?I?m not talking to Manny about doing any fights or anything because I want him to settle down as a senator and then if he wants to? in the face of speculation about a rematch of his ?Fight of the Century? with Floyd Mayweather Jr on May 2, last year which turned out to be a major letdown with Pacquiao undergoing surgery for a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder five days after the fight.
Arum indicated ?the first thing he (Manny) has to do is to solidify himself as a senator.?
Pacquiao who was given a May 27 deadline to make a decision on whether he would compete in the Olympics by the ABAP ? the national sports association for boxing headed by president Ricky Vargas, that he had decided ?to prioritize his legislative duties.?
Vargas said ABAP "respects senator Manny?s decision and wishes him well in his work in the senate.?
The ABAP president added, ?he (Pacquiao) will be most welcome to Rio to cheer our athletes on.?
At the height of the back-and-forth rhetoric between AIBA president Dr. Wu Ching-Kuo and several former boxing world champions, trainers and officials led by World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman, Arum branded the decision to allow pro boxers to fight in the Olympics as ?madness.?
At the same time he told us Manny who was recently proclaimed as a senator after garnering more than 16 million votes ?owes an obligation to the people who elected him to the senate and needs to fulfill that obligation,? especially since he had ?a lot of work to do in the senate.?
Pacquiao had said he was looking to give the country a chance to win its first coveted gold medal in the Olympics and that it was not for the money.
The Rio Olympics will be the last chance for Pacquiao to compete in the Olympic Games because he would be over the age limit of 40 years when the games are held in Tokyo.
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