By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s next fight negotiations should be wrapped up by November or December, he says. Pacquiao is reportedly in talks with Amir Khan, as well as some other fighters.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank says the decision in who the 36-year-old Filipino will be fighting will be up to Pacquiao, not him. But judging by the guys that Pacquiao has been fighting over the years, it would seem that Arum will have a big influence on who Pacquiao winds up facing next in early 2016.

Pacquiao is picking an odd time to retire from boxing. It comes right after he was schooled by Floyd Mayweather Jr. If Pacquiao retires after just one more fight, a lot of fans are going to think that Mayweather sent him into retirement with the way he dominated Pacquiao earlier this year in their fight on May 2nd. After all the talking that Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach had done over the years, he looked terrible in getting beaten by Mayweather.

Pacquiao has an election coming up in May in the Philippines for a senate position. If Pacquiao wins, he’ll be retiring from the sport. That’s why it’s so important that Pacquiao and Arum choose wisely for their next fight in February or April 2016. Putting Pacquiao back in with Brandon Rios or Tim Bradley won’t do much for him, and will probably result in a fight that generates between 300,000 and 450,000 PPV buys.

“I will fight anybody, anywhere,” Pacquiao said to AFP. “I am going to fight probably before the election [in May]. The election is coming next year, May, and before that I will probably have one fight. We are going to finalize by November or December.”

Pacquiao and Arum need to announce the fight as soon as possible if they’re going to be selecting a lesser name for the fight like Terence Crawford. It’s going to be hard work to build up a fight like that, or another fight against Rios or Bradley, because there’s no demand from the boxing world for any of those fights. Crawford isn’t much of a talker and neither is Pacquiao. Trainer Freddie Roach would likely need to be the main guy to drum up interest in a Pacquiao-Bradley fight with his wild knockout predictions.

Putting Pacquiao in with Amir Khan could be the worst possible thing that Arum could do for the Filipino fighter because Khan can do a lot of the same things that Mayweather can do but a lot better at this point in his career. Khan moves better than Mayweather and he has better hand speed.

I don’t see how Pacquiao is going to be able to land anything against Khan if he’s the one that he winds up facing for his final fight. If that fight gets made, I don’t see Pacquiao winning it. Look at it this way; a loss to Khan could potentially hurt Pacquiao in the May elections for his senate seat in the Philippines. I don’t know how fans will react to seeing Khan do a number on Pacquiao, but my guess is they probably won’t want to vote for him after an especially one-sided loss. If Pacquiao starts talking shoulder injury again, or any injury, I think it’s going to be real bad for him.