Manny Pacquiao: Political Aspirations Have Clouded Boxing Career

Manny Pacquiao's boxing career has been placed on the back burner, and it makes you wonder how many fights one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters has left in his system.

PacMan only participates in two boxing matches a year at this point, and he spends most of his time as a congressman for the Sarangani district in the Philippines after winning a whopping 66-percent of the vote in the 2010 election.

In the upcoming 2013 election, he’ll be looking to land a spot in the executive office, a move that would all but end his boxing career. While we may be unaware of exactly what sort of responsibilities his new title would entail, when he spoke with Fox Sports in late 2011 about it, PacMan made it sound like it would mark the end of his time in the ring:

"

It's hard to be an executive and do boxing. That means if Pacquiao and Mayweather are to meet, it would have to be sometime next year. I don't really need that fight. If it happens, good, because it's what the fans want. But I'm happy with what I've done in boxing

"

PacMan knows the end is near, and after his June 9 fight against Timothy Bradley, he may only have one fight left in November before calling it quits.

He doesn’t need to train for an endless number of hours in a remote mountain region anymore; he doesn’t need to get his face bashed in for people’s entertainment.

In 2012, Pacquiao is a brand more than anything else. If he isn’t boxing or deciding important political matters, he’s advertising his own fashion line or cologne, making Billboard top 50 hit songs and appearing in national Best Buy ads.

He does it all, and unlike his nemesis Floyd Mayweather, he is almost universally liked (well, at least before the gay marriage comments).

Unlike Mayweather who seems obsessed with making as much money as possible, which can only be made through boxing, PacMan doesn’t need the $25 million paydays that one of his matches commands anymore. He doesn’t need the sport, and that’s a shame for boxing fans.

It’s selfish of us to demand he continues to fight for our entertainment. He has the right to stop when he wants to, and I think we better enjoy this upcoming fight while we can, because the end of the line is awfully close.

PacMan wants to make a difference in the Philippines, and it looks like that is his main goal moving forward. 

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