With Filipino Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao’s defeat of Lucas Martin Matthysse over the weekend with the latter only suffering his second stoppage in some 44 fights maybe the press won’t ask for his retirement like they did after losing a disputed decision in his previous fight against Jeff Horn.

Pacquiao is 60-7-2 with 39 stoppages in a career than has spanned 23 years he has won titles at WBC Flyweight, IBF Super Bantam, WBC Super Feather, WBC Lightweight, WBO Welter, WBC Light Middle, WBO Welter twice and now the WBA Welter titles.

At 39 Pacquiao looked like the Pacquiao of old. Not disclosing an injury led to his showing against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. He couldn’t use what was needed for his shoulder injury at fight time. He has been a big time lift for the sport of boxing when it was needed.

This writer’s favorite boxer today is Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, 38-0-1 (34), of KAZ, living in L.A., CA, who doesn’t seem to win the writers over. He won the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBO middleweight titles. He gets the short end of the stick against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, 49-1-2, in a fight he deserved the victory. So in order to fight a rematch he loses the IBF title for not defending against his No. 1 contender Russian born Sergiy “The Technician” Derevyanchenko, 12-0 (10), of the Ukraine living in Brooklyn, NY.

I believe Golovkin was getting ready to capture the only title he didn’t hold in the WBO title held by the UK’s southpaw Billy Joe “Superb” Saunders, 26-0 (12). Even though Alvarez was suspended for 6 months after the fight the decision was not changed to No Decision or No Contest. Then to allow Alvarez to be reinstated after the suspension into a title fight makes no sense. An Alvarez-Danny Jacobs fight would have been more like it or even with Jermall Charlo, 27-0, the Regular WBC champion. Golovkin should have made his defense during that 6 month period against Derevyanchenko.

The third non-American is Vasyl “High-Tech” Lomachenko, 11-1 (9), of the Ukraine, living in Oxnard, CA, holder of the WBO Feather, WBO Super Feather and currently the WBA Lightweight title. Some like this writer feel he is the P4P best but with only 11 fights he doesn’t seem to get the respect he deserves. He is coming off a major injury and will be returning to the ring soon.

In getting a world title fight after winning a pair of Olympic Gold Medals and his first professional fight he lost in a title challenge for the WBO World Feather title losing by split decision to Orlando Salido, 41-12-2, who came in several pounds overweight.

Those coming in from the European East are hungry like Americans once were and have made a statement in boxing!