Manny Pacquiao May Fight On: It's Hard To Say I'm Finished

By Edward Chaykovsky

Eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) may or may not be coming to the end of his long career.

Pacquiao returns on April 9th, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, against former two division world champion Timothy Bradley.

This bout will be the third meeting between the two boxers. Bradley won a controversial twelve round split decision when they met in 2012, while Pacquiao got a solid unanimous decision in the 2014 rematch.

For the last few months, Pacquiao has claimed that he plans to retire after next month's fight. He wants to pursue a full-time career in politics back in the Philippines. He is currently running for a senate seat.

His promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, expects the future Hall of Famer to continue fighting. Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, is also predicting continued activity in the not too distant future.

Pacquiao is not ruling out the possibility of a future fight. His performance against Bradley, now trained by Teddy Atlas, will likely determine the future.

“We do not know. It’s hard to say if I’m finished. I can’t say I don’t want to come back. My decision will come after this fight. I’ll go back to the Philippines and … [might] have a new job to do and be focused on,” Pacquiao said to the Los Angeles Times.

Pacquiao returns for the first time since last May's twelve round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. He aggravated a right shoulder injury during the fight and had to have surgery a few days later.

“I’m still focused to train and work hard. I’ve rested almost one full year. It motivated me and my body feels good, almost like I’m starting in boxing,” Pacquiao said. “In the first two weeks of our training, we used [the shoulder], punching hard."