Manny Pacquiao will fight April 9, then retire

A report at ESPN.com tonight says that Manny Pacquiao, who has been inactive following a May 2 loss to Floyd Mayweather and shoulder surgery, will return to the ring on April 9. And it will be the final fight of his career, as his focus shifts from boxing to his political career in the Philippines.

Pacquiao, who turns 37 in December, has been inching toward retirement for a few years now, and given his advancing age and the fact that he is, while still quite good, clearly past his prime, the timing is probably right to get out before anything really goes wrong. Manny has served as a Congressman in the Philippines for the last few years, and will be running for Senate in 2016.

"I'm telling you what he told me last week at dinner in New York," Arum said. "We talked very seriously and he said, 'Bob, hopefully, by the middle of May I will have been elected senator in the Philippines and at that point I cannot engage in boxing because I need to focus on the senate and I have to be in attendance.'

"Manny told me this fight on April 9 will be his last fight."

While hardly set in stone, this has been rumored in recent weeks, that Pacquiao wanted to return in the spring and then hang up the gloves, and really, there has been a lot of question about his dedication to boxing and "killer instinct" as a fighter in recent years, and whether or not mentally he was still the same fighter anymore.

Who do you want to see Pacquiao face? Andre Berto?