Pacquiao ‘kind of dying out,’ says top welterweight Thurman

MANILA, Philippines – Keith Thurman, the undefeated WBA welterweight titleholder, suggests that Manny Pacquiao’s time as a relevant figure in the boxing world may have already come to an end.

The unbeaten Thurman played down the possibility of fighting the living legend and current WBO welterweight titleholder, telling RingTV.com that the 38-year-old Pacquiao is “kind of dying out.”

“The thing about Manny is that he’s had his hurrah,” said Thurman (27-0, 22 knockouts), who is set to face WBC titleholder Danny Garcia in a unification fight on March 4. “And we’re not really sure how long he’s going to be performing for.

“The only thing is that he’s kind of dying out because we’re getting flooded with all this young talent in the welterweight division and it doesn’t really seem like Manny Pacquiao is trying to compete with the rest of the herd.” (READ: Making Pacquiao great again)

Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) is coming off a unanimous decision win over Jessie Vargas to win the WBO title in November, but his last two fights since the loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2015 have been met with lukewarm reaction from the boxing public, with his third fight against Timothy Bradley Jr selling approximately 400,000 pay-per-views and the Vargas fight, an independently produced pay-per-view, selling approximately 300,000 units.

Pacquiao has announced on his Twitter account that his next fight will take place on April 23 in the United Arab Emirates, with Jeff Horn and former two-division champion Amir Khan being speculated among the possible names to get the fight date. Pacquiao’s advisor Michael Koncz tells FoxSports that “hopefully by midweek next week” an opponent and venue will be finalized. – Rappler.com