Pacquiao vs. Rios: Loss for Pac-Man Would Mean End of Career

All good things must come to an end, and for Manny Pacquiao's career, the end could be sooner rather than later.

Pac-Man will be facing Brandon Rios on November 23 for the vacant WBO international welterweight title, and both fighters are in desperate need of a win. Rios, who is currently 31-1-1, just lost the first fight of his career against Mike Alvarado, and is looking to get back to his winning ways.

For Pacquiao, he has lost his last two fights, although one of those was an incredibly controversial decision against Timothy Bradley.

Still, after getting knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez back in December of last year, Pacquiao needs to come out and prove himself once again. or his career could finally be over.

It's quite obvious that Pac-Man isn't the same fighter that he once was. His last official win came back in November 2011 against Marquez, which was the last victory during his 15-fight win streak.

With 61 total fights over almost 19 years, Pacquiao's body has obviously taken quite a beating. He's now 34 years old and quickly approaching his 35th birthday, and boxers of his caliber begin slowing down around this time.

The talks have already begun in Pacquiao's corner about what's next for the legendary fighter. According to the Associated Press via USA Today, Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach had this to say about the possibility of Pac-Man retiring after this fight:

"

If it does not go well, we will seriously talk about his retirement and possibly going to politics.

It's really hard to say until we see the fight, but I will be the first one to tell him to retire, and we have an agreement that as soon as I tell him that, he will retire.

I know people are skeptical about that. Manny is a realist. He accepts it. It does not bother him.  If you don't think you're going to be knocked out, you've got the wrong sport.

"

It's a trainer's job to talk up his fighter to both the media and to the fighter himself, but these talks of retirement have to be serious if they're coming right before a big fight like this one.

As mentioned by Roach, Pacquiao is considering an extended career in politics. He's run for a congressional seat in both 2007 and 2010 in the Philippines, winning the latter in the Sarangani province. He had hinted back in July about possibly running for president one day in the Philippines.

If that's really what Pacquiao plans to do, it would certainly have to be something he focused 100 percent of his efforts on. By retiring, he would be able to make time for a possible political campaign.

At the end of the day, Pac-Man is going against an extremely talented (and younger) fighter in Rios, and his chances of winning aren't as high as they once were.

There are few fighters that have had the success that Pacquiao has had over the years, but he understands that his career must end one day, and if he can't keep up with a younger fighter like Rios, it may be time to hang up the gloves.