Manny Pacquiao's Next Fight: Best Opponents for Potential Next Bout
A lot of talk leading up to Saturday was about Manny Pacquiao retiring.
A lot of talk coming out of Saturday will be about how he doesn't need to.
Rather than playing patsy to a supposedly new and improved Tim Bradley, the 37-year-old Filipino instead turned in his best performance of the three-fight series, scoring two knockdowns on the way to a clear unanimous decision before more than 16,000 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao earned the verdict by three scores of 116-110, which mirrored the Bleacher Report card, eight rounds to four with two two-point rounds.
Afterward, he told HBO's Max Kellerman that he planned to retire, but he barely sounded as if he meant it. Kellerman didn't seem to believe it either.
"As far as I'm concerned, until I hear differently, he has retired from the sport of boxing," Bob Arum said at the post-fight press conference.
For these purposes, we'll take the "until I hear differently" angle and run with it.
Here are a handful of possible options if Manny indeed decides to continue.
5. Adrien Broner
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Tim Bradley is as good a guy as there is, but after the lukewarm buzz prior to Saturday night, it's clearly going to take a new high-profile name to help Pac-Man even approach the sorts of fight-night relevance he'd been accustomed to.
And though there will never be a shortage of guys willing to risk career trajectory for a spot in Manny's aura, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more interesting matchup for the 37-year-old than his biggest-name rival's most prominent wannabe.
Not surprisingly, Adrien Broner has chatted up the idea of a Pacquiao fight in the past, suggesting to ESNews (via GMA News Online) that he'd "kick his ass" if it ever came together.
Of course, it barely makes the reality radar these days thanks to the protracted "I hate you, you hate me" dispute that's made rich men out of attorneys representing Arum and Al Haymon.
But for our fantastical purposes here, it's at least fun to imagine.
4. Danny Garcia
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When it comes to Pacquiao, a Mayweather rematch is clearly the fight most ticket-sellers would want to see. But if there's an option coming up fast on the outside, it could be Danny Garcia.
No fighter at 140 pounds did more over the last handful of years than Garcia, and now that he’s ridden into the 147-pound world and lassoed a title belt, it makes a lot of sense.
He rode sidesaddle on Mayweather's pay-per-view show with Canelo Alvarez in 2013 and handled the spotlight well, and he's got a talkative father who'd no doubt love to get the full-on complement of 24/7 microphones that'd presumably accompany an HBO broadcast with the Filipino.
If you're a fan of both boxing and Santa Claus, this is the fight to scribble onto your late-2016 wish list.
3. Terence Crawford
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Hold the tips of your index finger and thumb about an inch apart.
That’s about how close Terence Crawford came to landing what would have been the biggest fish of his nearly eight-year pro career.
Pacquiao would have played that role had he agreed to meet the Nebraska native—and not repeat foil Bradley—in this weekend’s swan song. But if Pac-Man wakes up in a fighting mood after what most would consider a third win over Bradley, perhaps he’ll reconsider the exit.
As I wrote early last month on BoxingScene.com:
"Promoter Bob Arum started making statements about Crawford and Pacquiao a while back—the way he used to do about Brandon Rios when Bam Bam was an unbeaten lightweight champion.
“Down the road—and it's very possible—that a year from now we put him in with Pacquiao,” the Top Rank boss said after Crawford ripped Yuriorkis Gamboa in June 2014.
“That would be a huge fight and a great fight. If you really think you have a great fighter with superstar qualities, you move him that way. You don't protect him. You move a superstar into the biggest fights you can make for him, and that's what we are going to do.”
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2. Canelo Alvarez
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The equation is simple.
Take Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s foil in one of the biggest-grossing pay-per-views of all time, add a guy who met Money in the biggest show ever last spring, and you'll probably draw some eyeballs.
At the very least, Canelo Alvarez is an ideal opponent for a marquee career continuation.
Presuming he's the winner of next month's "middleweight" match with Amir Khan and doesn't fancy the idea of a bigger Gennady Golovkin, the idea of a smaller Manny Pacquiao might be there for the asking.
Alvarez's promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, had expressed interest in a Pacquiao match in the past. And chances are good that if Pacquiao gave the word—even though the current company line suggests the train has left the station, according to BoxingScene.com—it wouldn't be hard to get chatter going once again.
Given the fan reaction when it was brought up at the MGM Grand on Saturday night, at least 16,000 would like to see it.
1. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
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The overriding reason it made sense for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Pacquiao to finally meet last May will not have changed too much by the time this fall rolls around.
No matter where they go and no matter what they say, neither one of them will ever make as much money fighting anyone else as they will by fighting each other.
And regardless of the backlash following their $100 competitive yawner and so many people’s insistence that they’ll not be fooled again, the idea that a Mayweather-Pacquiao II would not draw a full house in Las Vegas and at least a million or two more via pay-per-view is self-righteous naivete.
Some people believe Pacquiao was genuinely hampered by the shoulder injury he claimed to have aggravated in the early going, per BBC Sport. And the report by SB Nation's Thomas Hauser that Mayweather received a dubious IV the night before the fight no doubt has others thinking that, without the saline and vitamins, who knows?
Couple those concepts with the reality that both men still possess the rare mixture of mainstream profile and pound-for-pound stardom, and it’ll almost be more surprising if Mayweather doesn’t call on his Filipino foil to go for 50-0 than if he does.
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
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