Manny Pacquiao will not take on a easy opponent as his comeback fight (Photo : REUTERS)
According to Top Rank chief Bob Arum, eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao's long-time promoter, the Filipino ring icon will hang up the gloves after just one more fight in 2016 -- and it couldn't come at a better time.
Rarely do we ever see fighters walk away from the sport at just the right time. Often, fighters fight way past their primes, when they enter the stage of their careers where they are vulnerable to permanent injury.
Fighters like Roy Jones Jr., Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins continue to fight on in their advanced age. Boxing is a young man's sport as they always say, and it couldn't be more true.
Due to the physical nature of boxing, the speed and reflexes, as well as the ability to take a punch, are just not there anymore late in a fighter's career.
TMZ Sports reported Bob Arum told them that Pacquiao would fight once more in 2016, and after that, retire for good with aspirations of furthering his political career and on possibly becoming President of the Philippines sometime down the road.
"He's going to fight again next year but his goal is to become Senator in the Philippines, which he will be next year, and then to be president," Arum was quoted as saying.
"I think Manny will retire once he's elected to the Senate of the Philippines which is next year. He's going to hang up the gloves," Arum added.
Pacquiao hasn't been the same in recent fights. He's gone 3-3 in his last six fights, which includes a devastating knockout loss to arch nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.
More importantly, Pacquiao has visibly lost a step -- noticeably slower and with a lesser punch output. Not being able to 'pull the trigger' is a telltale sign of a fighter who's just about done with the sport.
After his lackluster performance against Floyd Mayweather in May, a fight many anticipated but which certainly failed to deliver, there isn't much left to argue that Pacquiao is still an elite fighter.
As such, there are no fights left on the horizon that carry any meaning for Filipino boxing's living legend.
After a long and glorious career that saw Pacquiao win eight world titles in eight different weight divisions, also being awarded 'Fighter of the Decade' honors for the period between 2000-2010, it's just about time.
Fans, watch out for Pacquiao's next fight -- it could be his last.
