ROY JONES JR hailed Manny Pacquiao’s ‘absolutely marvellous’ legacy and said defeat to Floyd Mayweather is NOT a ‘regret’.
Jones heaped praise of his fellow boxing legend after Pacquiao officially announced his retirement.
PacMan walks away as one of the most celebrated fighters of all time, who won titles in a record eight divisions.
But the biggest of his 72 fights was against long-time rival Mayweather in 2015, which ended in a points loss.
It settled five years of drawn out negotiations and resulted in an American record of 4.6million pay-per-views.
Pacquiao, 42, chased a rematch with Mayweather, 44, after citing an injury to his right shoulder after the loss.
But despite never getting a shot at revenge, Jones insisted the iconic PacMan can enjoy retirement regardless of what happened that night.
He told Sky Sports: “It’s not his regret. Because he wasn’t the one who wasn’t trying to make it happen.
“He was trying to make it happen but couldn’t until Mayweather agreed to it. It’s nothing that he has to regret.”
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Pacquiao had memorable trilogy bouts with Erik Morales, 45, Timothy Bradley, 38, and even FOUR fights with Juan Manuel Marquez, 48.
He was unbeaten in three heading into his comeback in August, thanks to wins over Lucas Matthysse, 39, Adrien Broner, 32, and Keith Thurman, 32.
The southpaw superstar was then due to challenge Errol Spence Jr, 31, for the WBC and IBF unified welterweight titles.
But undefeated American Spence pulled out with an eye injury with Cuban Yordenis Ugas, 35, being elevated from the undercard in replacement.
Ugas won a points decision and sent Pacquiao into retirement to instead focus on his bid to become president of the Philippines.
Jones commentated on several of PacMan’s fights for HBO and like many boxing fans around the world, was thankful for his career.
He said: “He leaves an absolutely marvellous legacy in boxing. He had a whole country and a whole continent behind him.
“He brought a whole lot to the game, he entertained for a long time, it was a beautiful thing to see.
“It was like one country against the world – that’s what he represented.
“It was a beautiful career and I’m glad to have experienced it, glad to have known him.
“He’s an awesome person who had a brilliant career. He fought whoever came his way, whoever was close to his weight.
“He had a heck of a trilogy with a couple of guys. He had a heck of a fight with many Mexican guys.
“He had really good fights, and fought all the names that were available to him at the time.”
