Fellow boxing champions are divided on the question of whether Manny Pacquiao should hang his gloves after being brutally knocked out last weekend by Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez.

Among those who believe Pacquiao could rebound from his stunning loss are unbeaten World Boxing Council light middleweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Filipino American super bantamweight star Nonito Donaire Jr.

The 36-year-old Mayweather, Pacquiao’s erstwhile chief rival in the race for the best boxer in the world pound-for-pound, has also urged the fallen Pinoy champion, to “bounce back like a true champion.”

“I wish Pacquiao nothing but the best. I wish he can bounce back and he can recoup from this [loss],” Mayweather told Ben Thompson of FightHype.com.

The new pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter did not rule out a future fight with the Pacquiao and suggested instead for PacMan to take a break and sort things out.

“Pacquiao’s focus should be trying to take a vacation, get his mind right and get a few tune-up fights so he can bounce back,” said Mayweather when asked about the chances of Mayweather-Pacquiao mega fight.

But Mayweather stressed the need for Pacquiao to focus on boxing and do away with distractions that have adversely affected his ring performance.

“You have to really, really dedicate yourself to your craft. I think [Pacquiao’s] got so many different things on the outside that he worries about,” Mayweather said.

Donaire thought that Pacquiao remains “very competitive and was actually winning he was knocked out cold by Marquez with barely second left in the sixth round.

“He has the power, he just needs the dedication. When you put your life on the line, you got to be 100 percent into it,” said Donaire, a four-division world champion and current unified bantamweight champion of the world.

“You got to put everything into it, and not take anything for granted with each moment, and just learn from what happened,” Donaire told Filipino American sportswriter Dennis Guiilermo, a
four-division world champion and current unified bantamweight champion of the world.

However, former British world champion Ricky Hatton advised Pacquiao that now is the time retire from boxing safe in the knowledge he has secured his legacy.

Hatton, 34 and a former world light-welterweight and welterweight champion, was himself knocked out by Pacquiao in the second round in May 2009 in what was then only his second professional career loss.

“The only advice I could give Manny Pacquiao is that his legacy is already secured,” Hatton told British network Sky TV. “The thing is with us fighters is that there is always one more fight.”

Hatton, who is now a boxing promoter, he would rather see Pacquiao retire and spend more time with his family.

“What’s he (Pacquiao) going to achieve by having one more fight? Probably nothing. He’s an eight-weight world champion. There’s nothing more to be said,” Hatton said.

Former middleweight and light heavyweight world champion Bernard Hopkins said Pacquiao should take an extended leave from boxing before even contemplating returning to the ring.

“That’s the type of punch that takes more than one fight out of you. It takes a couple of fights out of you. It’s one of those types of knockouts that you can recover from in life, but I don’t think you can recover fully in the sport,” Hopkins told Showtime’s Jim Rome.

“That was a devastating knockout that has a long-term effect.... I know when you see a guy get knocked out and hit in that way, they are considered damaged goods and they live up to that title,” added Hopkins a savvy counter-puncher just like Marquez.

Hopkins advised Pacquiao to take a long vacation, maybe a year off to enable him to “regroup physically, mentally, spiritually and then decide if he still wants to fight.”

“Truthfully it was such a devastating knockout that I don’t think he will ever be the Pacquiao that he was,” Hopkins added.