By Chris Williams: Former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao is reportedly interested in participating in the 2016 Olympics in Rios if selected by his country of the Philippines.

A recent rule change is now allowing professional fighters to compete in the Olympics. There are a number of pros that are interested in fighting for their country in the Olympics in order to try and capture a gold medal. Pacquiao is one of them, according to Phil Boxing.

The 37-year-old Pacquiao is supposedly retiring from the sport after his April 9 fight against Tim Bradley on HBO PPV. However, Pacquiao will reportedly be putting off his retirement in order to take part in the Olympics if chosen.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has already said he has no interested in taking part in the Olympics. Mayweather already medaled in the 1996 Olympics and was arguably robbed in a fight that he appeared to easily win in that Olympics.

“Absolutely not” said Mayweather to skysports.com when asked if he would fight in the 2016 Olympics. “For my body to recover from all my fights will be for the rest of my life. I’m truly blessed to have been fighting for so much of my life. I had a great run. Ain’t no more for this body to heal but rest.”

Olympic fights are four rounds, and the action is fast and it requires a lot of brawling. It’s unclear if Pacquiao would do well with that kind of fast pace fighting for four rounds. He would be competing against a lot of younger fighters that are capable of fighting hard for three minutes of every round. If Pacquiao were to back off and want to fight tentatively once he gets nailed by a small handful of jabs and right hands like he did in his fight.

If Pacquiao wants to cement himself as a hero for his country, then fighting in the Olympics would do probably do it. If Pacquiao were to be able to win a gold in the 2016 Olympics, it would be a way to validate his career and ride off into retirement as a hero. On the flipside, if Pacquiao were to be quickly eliminated by one of the young fighters from places like Cuba or some of the other countries, it would be a bad way for him to bow out of the sport.

There are amateur fighters in Eastern Europe and Cuba that are pretty much like professionals, and they would give Pacquiao all he could handle in the short four round bouts. I could see Pacquiao losing to one of them and wind up being eliminated.

If Pacquiao fights in the Olympics, he would likely be facing taller, younger fighters that know how to box well. They would know how to use the scoring system, which is odd and controversial much of the time, to win a decision against him. Amateur isn’t even like normal boxing. It’s like tapping, and the judges don’t seem to score rounds based on the better punches landing. It’s little more than tapping with the white part of the glove. I can’t see Pacquiao doing well in the system of fighting because it’s not even fighting. It’s a completely different sport in my view.