Manny Pacquiao Has 'Couple More Fights' Before Retiring, Wants Vasyl Lomachenko Next

Despite seemingly being at the end of his professional boxing career, Manny Pacquiao still maintains he has a couple of fights left in him before he calls it a day.

Pacquiao (59-7-2) will face Lucas Matthysse (39-4-1) for the latter's World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title when they clash at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 14. His meeting with the Argentinian will mark his first fight since last July when he lost his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title to Jeff Horn in a controversial unanimous decision.

But with four of his seven losses coming in his last nine fights, the 39-year-old is not ready to retire yet as he still hopes to have his final contest in his home country of the Phillipines.

"Definitely this is not my last fight," Pacquiao said on Friday while promoting the fight. "I want my last fight to be in the Philippines, but I still have a couple more fights till I retire. Matthysse’s style is very aggressive. He’ll want to come inside and fight toe-to-toe. You won’t see running or dancing in the ring."

Before the fight with Matthysse was announced, Pacquiao was targeting a super-fight with the current WBO junior lightweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko.

Lomachenko (10-1) is regarded by many as the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world today and a win over him would undoubtedly prove Pacquiao is not finished in the sport, despite fighting at a higher weight class.

Instead, the Ukrainian turned down the fight to move up in weight but to lightweight as he takes on WBA champion Jorge Linares on May 12 in Madison Square Garden, New York. Should Lomachenko win, Pacquiao will target a fight with him next but only if he records a convincing victory over Matthysse, according to his adviser Michael Koncz.

"It [a convincing win over Matthysse] sets up a potential big fight that Manny has been talking about in the fall and that’s against Lomachenko," Koncz recently stated. "The whole goal is we look very impressive, we walk away with the win, nobody gets injured, then we fight Lomachenko in the fall."

"If we can’t be successful here and have a good showing, how can we convince Lomachenko to fight us? He [Lomachenko] will have to prevail in his upcoming fight too, so this has a lot of moving parts," he said.

Koncz added that a potential meeting between the two would take place at 140 pounds and that there is already a verbal agreement with Top Rank's Bob Arum, who promotes both fighters.

“I’ve already talk to Manny about that, I’ve already talked to [Bob] Arum about that because Lomachenko is their fighter and they’re okay with going there [Malaysia]," he added.

Lomachenko though, is not so sure a win over Pacquiao will do much for his career as critics will put down the victory.

"I am not going to accept the fight this year," Lomachenko said in January. "However, if the bout takes place next year, they’ll just tell me I sent the old man to someone else’s weight category. There are many champions in my weight division, and I’m going to continue my career in this direction. Modern boxing, modern names."

"If I decide to finish my career tomorrow, I am not going to ask some guy from a lower weight category to conduct the farewell fight. It’s good money, but that’s not why I’m fighting," he added.