Following his first knockout in over a decade, legendary boxer Manny Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee cried during an interview with Philippine news station GMA, the Telegraph reported.
"The people who support me, their morale- I want to make them happy, now they're sad. For me, it's not a problem. The low morale, the sadness, I accept that. This is my job... But the reaction of the Filipinos, the many who cried, especially my family, it really hurts me," he admitted in an interview on the network.
Pacquiao, a former eight-division world champion, fought back tears, wiping his eyes intermittently with a tissue, listening to his wife Jinkee tearfully beg her husband on camera to quit boxing once and for all.
"When you see your husband get hurt, you cannot even sleep," she said, the Telegraph reported.
When asked by the network if she wanted her husband to retire from the world of organized boxing, she frankly replied, "You know the answer to that. He knows what I am asking him."
Dionisia, the 33-year-old athlete's mother, also pleaded her son to quit boxing in a separate appeal on the network.
"I have long asked you son, it is time to retire because you started boxing at such a young age. I always pray that he will stop. I asked God to tell my son to stop," she said, according to the Telegraph.
She continued, saying that she was shocked by her son's knockout by Juan Manuel Marquez in the sixth round of their non-title fight Saturday night in Las Vegas.
The knockout surprised the boxer's fans the world over, but utterly stunned the massive Philippine audience; Pacquiao hadn't been stopped in a fight since 1999 in Thailand when he was a 112-pounder.
"I was shocked yesterday. The way he suddenly fell," said Pacquiao's mother.
While Pacquiao was moved by the women's words, he continued to avoid any firm talk of his retirement.
"I don't want to hurt my family and the people who support them," was as much as he would say about his future plans.
"I am OK. I just got overconfident in this fight. That is part of the game - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose," he added.
Over the years the champion boxer has parlayed his successful fighting career into jobs in entertainment and commercial endorsements. However, his diverse responsibilities, including acting as a congressman in the Phillipines, hosting a TV game show, and being a product spokesman has thrown his focus on boxing in recent years into question.
"In the past year he has also become a Bible preacher, though he insists his religion has not dulled his killer instinct in the ring," the Telegraph noted.
Marquez won a historical bout against Pacquaio Saturday night at MGM's Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas after previously losing three matches against the star he contends were rightfully his victories.
For his part, Pacquiao was just as committed to getting back in the ring after the brutal loss as he was in the emotional TV interview.
"If you give us a chance, we'll fight again," Pacquiao said following the bout. "I was just starting to feel confident and then I got careless."
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