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When hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer and American football players announce their retirements, you can almost be certain never to see them play again. However, the same can’t be said for boxers. We’ve seen several of them retire in the past only to be lured back into the ring a year or two later, such as Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Muhammad Ali etc. Perhaps the most famous instance was George Foreman retiring for 10 years and then coming back to become the oldest-ever heavyweight champion at the age of 45 a decade later.

With the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently retiring with a record of 49-0 with 26 Kos after beating Andre Berto, it looks like southpaw Manny Pacquiao is now regarded as the most popular and perhaps best active pound-for-pound boxer left. However, according to Pacquiao, his bout next April 9th will be his last. He’ll then retire and focus more on his political career in his native Philippines. The announcement of his retirement, like Mayweather’s can be taken with a grain of salt though. In fact, the two of them may meet in a rematch in 2016.

At the moment, it’s no secret that Pacquiao would like to avenge his unanimous decision loss to Mayweather in Las Vegas on May 2nd. It’s also no secret that Mayweather won’t stay retired as long as he’s tied with former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano with a record of 49-0. This represents the best undefeated record of a champion and Mayweather’s ego is too big to leave it alone. He won’t be happy until he betters Marciano’s mark and reaches 50-0.

Mayweather is almost certain to fight again, but it doesn’t mean it’ll be against Pacquiao. He could opt to break the record by fighting a lesser opponent and then taking on Pacquiao. In the meantime, Pacquiao needs to lineup an opponent for his April 9th farewell fight. Several worth candidates have been mentioned such as England’s Amir Khan (31-3, 19 Kos) and Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 kos) and Timothy Bradley (33-1, 13 Kos) of America. Crawford recently defended his WBO Jr. Welterweight title against Dierry Jean of France and Bradley just stopped fellow American Brandon Rios in the ninth round to keep his WBO Welterweight Championship.

Bob Arum of Top Rank, the company which promotes Pacquiao, admitted that he’s been discussing a bout with former world junior welterweight champion Khan, but there’s been no formal contract signed as of yet. He added that Pacquiao will be running for a senator position in the Philippines and if he’s elected then he won’t be able to focus on boxing anymore. Up to now, the 36-year-old Pacquiao has assembled a record of 57-6-2 with 38 Kos to his name. He’s also won world championships in eight different weight classes.

Pacquiao has already fought Bradley twice and most fans believe he won both fights easily even though Bradley was given a controversial split decision in their first meeting. Therefore, many fans would rather see him fight somebody else even though they’ve both technically won and lost a decision against each other. Arum said Pacquiao would like to be elected president of Philippines one day and he understands why he’d need to give up boxing sooner rather than later