For about a third of this year, Manny Pacquiao will be busy with pursuits outside of boxing. This isn’t something from the usual list of Pacquiao’s activities either, like his acting career or love of basketball and karaoke. This is the May elections which Pacquiao is running in with hopes of becoming a congressman of the Sarangani region.
Also unlike his other pursuits, this is something which may either limit his time left in the ring or affect his performances as well. Going up against the powerful Chongbian family, most give Pacquiao little chance of winning the election.
Pacquiao might be a hero to some of these people, but the Chongbians have a much bigger influence on their everyday lives. Not to mention they can afford to spend a lot more than Manny and already have a pedigree within politics. Manny is clearly someone who loves to overcome the odds, and he’s been doing it all his career. To him this all might just seem like another bigger stronger opponent who people say he cannot beat.
These points have all been brought up before, but now that Manny is seemingly not fighting Floyd Mayweather in March, a May election win might see him leaving the ring with at least one more big fight left unsettled. If he does retire and Floyd keeps winning, then it might eventually be him rather than Pacquiao who is thought of as the better fighter.
It isn’t as if Pacquiao is over the hill and looking for something just to take up his time either, he’s still in his prime at 31 and is currently still putting on his best performances. If anything he’s still getting better, and retiring with big fights left out there for him will only harm his legacy. If the fight against Mayweather can’t be made for a good reason, then that would be fair enough, but a bizarre extra testing scenario isn’t something he should lose $40 million over.
After the pair both have tune up fights I get the feeling the fight will probably be arranged for later in the year provided Manny doesn’t win the election and subsequently retire. If the terms still can’t be agreed on, then Shane Mosley would probably make the best opponent as a last fight. Whether it ends up being his final fight or not is unclear at this point, with Freddie Roach having said he thinks Manny will return to the ring fairly quickly even after his last two fights and retirement.
