There is no one else in the roll of elite fighters who can rise to the occasion when Floyd Mayweather fades away from the spotlight with his retirement from boxing on Sept. 12 except the eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao Pacquiao, who lost to Mayweather by unanimous decision has already announced he will continue with his boxing career after a year-long recuperation from surgery stemming from his shoulder injury while training and during his fight against the unbeaten champ last May at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. When Mayweather retires on Sept. 12, Pacquaio will become boxing’s biggest attraction as Mayweather makes a shift from boxer to full-time promoter. After their “Fight of the Century,” Pacquiao remained Matweather’s closest rival despite his loss. While Mayweather continues to dominate sports and celebrity headlines as the world’s richest boxer, Pacquiao keeps himself accessible to media not to promote his return fight but to keep his fans aware of what he’s been doing outside of boxing. While on therapy, Pacquiao has been working on his charity projects, attending to the needs of his constituents, doing his job as a professional basketball coach, filming endorsement adverts and doing just about anything that is geared towards helping the poor. With all these activities, Pacquiao remains on top of popularity ratings despite his inactivity in the sport because of his injury. In politics, he rated high (97 percent awareness rating) in the survey conducted by Pulse Asia last year to determine the winnable senatorial candidates in the coming national elections in the Philippines. In its June 2015 survey, Pacquiao landed in 8th-14th place. Pacquiao is expected to resume training by the end of the year in preparation for his return fight that could happen early next year. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum hopes that Mayweather postpones his retirement and face Pacquiao in a rematch so the fans will know who indeed is the better fighter between them. Arum is looking at Terence Crawford, Lucas Matthysse and Kell Brook as possible opponents when Pacquiao returns to the ring early next year. While Mayweather had repeatedly said that his Sept. 12 fight will be his last, observers do not discount the possibility of Mayweather facing Pacquiao for the second time next year.
