While there are reports that Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Timothy Bradley Jr. on April 9, 2016 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada will be the Filipino’s “farewell fight”, Top Rank Promotions founder and Chief Executive Officer Bob Arum won’t commit to saying that it will indeed be Pacquiao’s final fight in his storied career.

“I don't want to say that [it's his last fight]. I'm not going to sell it as that because I don't want everybody to say, 'Hey, it's his last fight, come and see it!' and then it turns out that it's not his last fight,” Arum stated via Reuters.

"Who the hell knows with these guys? They all change their minds so I'm not selling it as his last fight. He says it's his last fight but who the hell knows?"

In earlier months there are reports that Pacquiao will retire from boxig and wants to focus on his political career in the Philippines, where he is an elected congressman and running for a senate seat in the Philippine elections held in May 2016, about a month after his scheduled fight against Bradley.

Even Arum stated last October that Pacquiao already told him that his return bout in April will be the last in his career.

It was only in September when Pacquiao’s rival, Floyd Mayweather Jr. retired from the sport and the main selling point for that fight, which was against unheralded Andre Berto, was that it was Mayweather’s “farewell fight”. It did not convince the viewers and the fight fans as pay-per-view (PPV) figures and profit were lower compared to other Mayweather’s bouts in recent years.

Mayweather beat Pacquiao last May in the “Fight of the Century” which earned both fighters record boxing purses as they shattered various sales records including total PPV buys and sales plus gate attendance profit.

Earlier this week, Pacquiao officially announced that he has made his choice for the highly anticipated return to the ring in 2016 picking Bradley and snubbing the likes of Amir Khan, Terence Crawford and Adrien Broner, all of whom were reportedly in the running as a Pacquiao opponent in April next year.

RELATED STORIES