Whether Manny Pacquiao wins or loses his highly anticipated boxing matchup against Brandon Rios on Saturday night, Pacquiao will leave Macau, China, with a world of possibilities before him.
For Pacquiao, he ideally will pummel Rios and proves that he's still one of the world's elite boxers, setting himself up for a grand finale against Floyd Mayweather and giving fans a long-awaited clash of ring powers. At worse, Pacquiao will get embarrassed by Rios and lose his third straight bout to finish his storied career.
At least Pacquiao has a solid fallback plan: running for president of the Philippines.
It's a stark contrast to the situation that Rios is in. The 28-year-old American is trying to use this fight as a platform to prove he's worthy of facing the world's top talents. A defeat for "Bam Bam" could mean that this will be the only major pay-per-view fight of his career.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao is immensely popular in his native Philippines and has dedicated this fight to the people lost and affected by Typhoon Haiyan, which decimated the country earlier this month. For as much pride as Pacquiao has brought to his country, he would still be a hero with a loss and an unceremonious end to his boxing career.
The idea of Pacquiao becoming president picked up steam in July, when he told the Agence Frence-Presse that he has considered the idea of running for office. It's not just an empty declaration, as Pacquiao spent three years as a congressman for the Filipino province of Sarangani.
But Pacquiao's presidential aspirations have been met with resistance. Vittorio Hernandez of the International Business Times cited Pacquaio's poor attendance record as a congressman, while noting the failure of other pop culture icons to run for high public offices in the Phillippines, like former actor-turned-president Joseph Estrada.
The current office of the president in the Philippines reportedly has no problems with Pacquiao's political aspirations, but he will have to wait until at least the 2020 elections, since he doesn't reach the mandated age of 40 until 2018.
For Pacquiao, the fact that the presidency is even a possibility must be intriguing to him because his life surely won't stop after boxing.
Even if he doesn't want to go the political route, his affable personality, acting chops and singing career give him multiple avenues to capitalize on his celebrity.
According to IMDB.com, Pacquiao has already starred in a TV series called "Show Me Da Manny." And don't forget his rendition of "Sometimes When We Touch," which he busted out on Jimmy Kimmel Live a few years back.
The jury might still be out on his singing career, but Pacquiao will be in good shape following Saturday's fight—no matter what the scorecard says. He's one of the few truly global icons in the realm of sports and will be able to use that to his advantage for a long time.
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