Manny Pacquiao's Dominating Win Proves Boxer's Career Is Far from Over

Goodbye, retirement talk. 

Rumblings of whether Manny Pacquiao should hang up the gloves for good were not so quiet around the sport of boxing heading into his fight on Saturday against Brandon Rios in Macau, China. It wasn't just rumblings, actually—even Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, stated before the fight that the legend would retire if he struggled against Rios, per Associated Press via ESPN.

In fact, Roach's worry that Pacquiao had lost his step was so noticeable that he even took up an agreement with Pac-Man. 

"It's really hard to say until we see the fight, but I will be the first one to tell him to retire. We have an agreement that as soon as I tell him that, he will retire," Roach said before the fight, per AP.

Fortunately for Roach, and Pacquiao for that matter, no such conversation took place. The 34-year-old dominated Rios for seemingly all of the 12-round bout, showed skill he hasn't displayed in each of his last two fights—both losses—and proved he'll be around for the foreseeable future.

Pacquiao was his usual swift-footed self, getting himself into positions where he could strike and quickly retreating before Rios could land a punch. 

Perhaps the only knock on Pacquiao's game on Saturday night is that he didn't turn on full attack mode late when he could've finished his opponent off. But even that's a critique filled with holes.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is the best active boxer right now, few would disagree with that notion. He's hardly shown either the will or the need to knock out his opponents late, as his last KO win other than the 2011 Victor Ortiz fluke was in 2007.

On top of that, Pacquiao certainly won't soon forget his fateful fight with Juan Manuel Marquez just short of a year ago where his guard was dropped for a split second and he was dropped to the canvas face first. You can't blame Pac-Man for trying to grind this one out and avoid giving up anything at all in the final moments.

Had Pacquiao shown that he still has yet to gather his step and that he's not the quick-footed assassin that he used to be, retirement would still be an option—regardless of winning or losing on Saturday. 

But that didn't happen. Pacquiao regained his form and mustered up the expertise and skill that got him to the top of the boxing world and thrust him into the conversation of top pound-for-pound boxers.

From start to finish, Pacquiao was a dominant boxer on a mission to get back to the pinnacle of the sport. You couldn't tell that he was coming off two straight losses and staring retirement in the face.

Pacquiao may or may not be ready to fight boxing's best again, and it's far from a head-turning opponent that he beat, but after his showing on Saturday night, there's no doubt that the retirement talk should end abruptly.