Jinkee on Manny retirement: I leave it to him

LAS VEGAS – Jinkee Pacquiao said she will no longer stand in her husband’s plan to keep fighting on.

“Pag lalo kong sinasabi, hindi naman nangyayari. (The more times I tell him to retire, the opposite always happens),” Manny Pacquiao’s wife said at the sidelines of Friday’s official weigh-in at the MGM Grand Garden Arena here (Saturday Manila time).

It can be recalled that Jinkee first urged her husband to call it quits after Pacquiao got knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012. But Pacquiao ended up fighting eight more times after that.

Within that stretch, the Filipino icon lost twice more — against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015 and Jeff Horn in 2016. With each setback, the clamor for him to retire, especially that from his wife, intensifies.

Jinkee’s pleadings, as well as others,’ almost always fall on deaf ears.

Pacquiao, now 40, is entering his 70th fight, against American Adrien Broner. He will most likely fight on afterwards, especially if he fashions out another impressive win.

Jinkee, for her part, will just let her husband have his way.

“Hintayin ko na lang na siya na talaga yung magsabi. Hindi na ako, kasi nasabi ko na sa kanya. So that’s it (I’ll just wait for his decision to retire. I won’t convince him anymore),” she said.

“Siya naman ang nakakaaalam sa sarili niya kung pwede pa o hindi na (He knows if his body can still take it or not),” Jinkee added.

“Kung ano ang gusto niya, susuportahan ko na lang (Whatever he wants, I’ll just support him).”