By Radio Rahim
Former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi believes Manny Pacquiao never intended to retire from the sport of boxing - and only announced his retirement to snatch a few headlines from his career rival, Floyd Mayweather Jr., who retired last September.
Pacquiao announced his retirement back in April, after winning a twelve round decision over Timothy Bradley in their trilogy fight. He pledged to pursue a full-time career in politics back home in the Philippines. He secured a senatorial seat the following month.
But then it only took a few months before Pacquiao announced he was feeling the urge to fight again. And his return was finalized for November 5th - when he challenges WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Malignaggi feels Pacquiao was a little jealous, because Mayweather was getting a lot of post-retirement media coverage - and the Filipino superstar was looking to grab away some of those press clippings for himself.
As far as the fight against Vargas, Malignaggi expects a fun, competitive fight.
"Did he retire? I don't know if it counts as a retirement when you fight five months later. Maybe it was that Mayweather retired and he just wanted to do the same thing that Mayweather did," Malignaggi told BoxingScene.com.
"I think it's going to be competitive because Jessie is a good fighter. He will make it competitive and we'll see what the two fighters bring out in each other. I think it will be a nice, fun fight. But at the end of the day I don't think Pacquiao ever intended to retire. I think he heard that Mayweather retired and he wanted to take a couple of headlines from Mayweather. When you fight five months later after announcing your retirement, I don't think you ever planned on retiring."
Mayweather is still retired and has no plans to fight again, but Pacquiao's return has reignited rumors of a rematch between the two. Mayweather won a twelve round decision over Pacquiao last May in a fight that generated 4.6 million pay-per-view purchases and shattered all financial records for a boxing event.
